


In which Dean Winchester is not a lucky explorer (but he's a lucky man)

by dragoneyes



Series: Unlucky Explorer and Solitary Naga [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Caretaking, Crack, Fluff, Heaps of crack, Interspecies Romance, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Naga!Castiel, Non-Human Genitalia, Romance, Temporary Blindness, no really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 04:00:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2453954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragoneyes/pseuds/dragoneyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the disastrous failure of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Dean surrenders to his brother’s insistence that he needs a change of scenery and to his assurances that of course going on a scientific exploration in the Eastern Rainforest with him and his bride-to-be would be the best way to do that.<br/>It doesn't take long for Dean to begin suspecting that some deity might have a bit of an unfair grudge towards him, especially when he ends up getting lost in one of the periodical storms washing over that region, is almost squished flat by a tree collapsing on his head, and is assaulted by a random cranky cobra.<br/>Of course, being found by an unlikely rescuer might actually prove him wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my entry for the [Dean/Cas Big Bang 2014](http://deancasbigbang.livejournal.com). Woo-oh!
> 
> Many many many thanks to [Miyuki](http://archiveofourown.org/users/akumanomiyu) for bearing with my continuous cursing at Dean and Cas during the drafting of this story (no, seriously, this came out completely different from what I originally planned!), to [Jessie](http://faithsotwisted.livejournal.com/) for her hyper efficient betaing and to [deprived-o](http://depraved-o.tumblr.com/) for her woderful, wonderful art.
> 
> The master post for the fic can be found [here](http://deancasbigbang.livejournal.com/175657.html) while the art master post is right [here](http://depraved-o.tumblr.com/private/99942123311/tumblr_ndem10g7L31rbdh5n).

Dean supposed he should have seen it coming.

It wasn't like the last few months had been particularly lucky for him or that he had a particularly positive record with unplanned excursion – what with that one time in high school when he'd come back home with a broken arm and an infection fever after a particularly unfortunate encounter with a bear, a beehive and a pair of freaking chipmunks, which he was _sure_ had decided to rile the bees on him on purpose – but surely he could be excused if he'd never considered the possibility of ending up lost in the middle of the Eastern Rainforest with nothing more with him than his backpack.

It had all started with the whole Lisa-fiasco and with one of the worst days of his life: not only had he been suspended from duty for _maybe_ roughing their suspect up a little bit more than necessary – Dean still maintained that they should have been grateful to him, since the guy confessed the location where he'd been keeping the kidnapped child that the whole police force had been searching for _weeks_ – but his two-year-long girlfriend had finally snapped and decided that she'd enough with what she called 'his continuous bullshit'.

Dean supposed it was fair enough, since he could admit he had a bit of baggage on his back derived from a screwed up childhood and the lack of a proper parental figure for the first fifteen years of his life, but she could have really handled it better. It wasn't like _she_ was the one suspended for an undetermined period of time from one of the few jobs she actually enjoyed...

Of course Dean might have handled it better himself – being found drunk out of his mind and passed out on her couch probably didn't help in making her more understanding towards his cause – but heck if he was ever going to admit it to anyone!

He'd already heard enough "Seriously, Dean?!" to last him for a lifetime when he'd narrated the whole tale to his brother, and at the time he'd kind of assumed that Sam's sour mood would have lasted for at least a few weeks and then that he too – one of the few people that still seemed to be stuck to the idea of him being actually good at something – would have finally started to treat him like the fuck up that he kept being reminded he was.

Except he hadn't.

On the third day, after Dean had been part of what he could safely call the mother of all drunken escapades, his brother's disapproval had all but vanished and it had been substituted by the same puppy-eyed look that Sam tended to get when he found a box of abandoned kittens on the side of the road.

Like he wanted to wrap Dean in the softest wool blanket he owned and never let him go again.

Dean had righteously been a bit freaked out.

Especially because he really couldn't remember what the fuck he'd said or done that night to cause such a drastic change in his brother's behavior – that wasn't entirely true: if he focused long enough, he could vaguely make out the sensation of tears on his face and a pretty long heart-to-heart about _feelings_ of all things, but he'd already decided that he was going to ignore that memory for the rest of his life and pretend like it had never happened.

So no, to be exact, the predicament he was currently in hadn't started with the whole Lisa-fiasco, nor with his suspension from duty – again, he still maintained he'd done the right thing because who knew what would have happened to that kid if they'd let their suspect go!

It had actually all started with Sam and his freaky girly needs to cheer his big brother up with the excuse that "Come on, Dean! You need a change of scenery!" – Dean was perfectly fine, thank you very much. Maybe still a bit miffed by the fact that Lisa had kicked him out without even letting him say goodbye to Ben, but not in any dire need of cheering up whatsoever. No matter how many bottles of Jack Daniel's he'd consumed in the days following their break-up.

He hadn't needed to be cheered up. Especially if it ended up with him lost in the middle of a fucking rainforest – because, had he mentioned it? _He was lost in the middle of a fucking rainforest! –_ with rain pouring over his head and mud in places he didn't even know he owned, and freaking thunder roaring in the sky like it was their last day on earth!

That big nerd of his brother had been talking about this expedition for months, about how pictures had arrived at the faculty and what it could have meant for the whole scientific community if they actually found a new species of mytholon never encountered before.

Dean hadn't wanted to burst Sam's bubble at the time, but a couple of blurry photos taken during a storm in the middle of thick vegetation didn't really spell 'weird mythological monster' to him, no matter how much his brother insisted that "Look Dean, that's definitely a reptile tail and there are no reptiles _that_ big in the Eastern Rainforest." because for all he knew, it was actually just a freaking oversized vine. That was how bad the quality of those pictures had been!

For all he knew, the other professors of Natural and Mythological Creatures at Sam's university had finally reached the breaking point with his over-positivity and sent his brother to follow a lost cause just to regain some space for themselves – Dean loved his brother, he really did, but even he knew that when Sammy got into his head some new theory that he wanted to present to the rest of the faculty, dealing with him became worse than dealing with a freaking ram.

Even if the pictures were authentic and the whatever-it-was on them turned out to actually be a mytholon, Dean still really didn't see what was exciting about it: more times than not, the members of the mytholon kingdom tended to think of humans as their lunch rather than friendly neighbors. Even the most common ones, like werewolves and vampires, had only in the last century accepted a begrudging truce with the rest of humanity instead of the previous chaos-inducing 'kill at sight' state of mind.

But Sam, with his freaky brain and love for mythology, had been quick to remind him that a lot of them were like normal people – that they could think and realize that feeding on humans was wrong if given the chance to do so – and he'd been even quicker to jump into the whole 'explore and find strange and new beings!' bandwagon, dragging with him both his brother and his girlfriend, Jessica – who, incidentally, had so far not only promptly decided to join her boyfriend in the unwarranted cause of cheering Dean up, but she had also shown to be just as excited as Sam was with this whole expedition idea.

Dean understood his brother's eagerness, he really did – heck, the guy was a scientist in every fiber of his sasquatch-sized body! – but that didn't mean he shared his same rainbow-and-sunshine view about mytholons: too many times during his work it turned out that, what had looked like an average case of missing person, had actually been caused by some vampire gone rogue or some werewolf that hadn't respected the safety protocol during a night of the full moon.

If it were up to him mytholons wouldn't be allowed in cities to begin with. The ones with proper reasoning abilities obviously still didn't care for the safety of humans anyway, and those that didn't...well, you would have to be a freaking idiot to allow wild animals in a crowded city without some form of safeguard to begin with!

Which made the whole idea of _him_ getting lost during a scientific expedition to find one of them that much more _hilarious_!

He would laugh his ass off – he really would! – if he weren't too busy crawling in mud and dead leaves while thunder crushed his ears and lightning lit up what few patches of the sky he could see through the thick foliage above him. He'd stopped trying to stay dry ages ago, soon realizing that _eh, rainforest_ , and by now he was so drenched in water that he barely noticed the drops still falling on him. He was shivering from head to toe in spite of the fact that he knew the air was supposed to be pretty warm that far south, but he didn't dare stop walking; fearing that once interrupted his efforts would be unable to continue due to exhaustion. Until he collapsed once and for all, he still had a chance to meet back with the rest of the expedition.

This wasn't the first storm that had hit their group, and Dean knew from previous experience that it shouldn't last much longer, but it was the most violent they'd encountered so far. So much so that, no matter how much the forest canopy was helping in stopping the rain, the visibility was still reduced to almost nothing. It didn't help that the undergrowth had been particularly dense in that part of the forest either...

The result was one lost Dean Winchester.

One lost, miserable Dean Winchester whose only hope at the moment was that his GPS device hadn't succumbed to the rain drenching his backpack in which it currently resided.

He was fucking doomed, wasn't he?

With a startled yelp he felt his body suddenly tilt when his boots slipped on the muddy ground, only managing to stay upright because he instinctively reached out to claw at the nearest tree.

"Shit..." he hissed, wiping the water running down his face and trying once again to peer through the thick vegetation in the vain hope to catch at least a glimpse of the rest of the expedition. He wondered if they'd realized that he was missing or if they were still too busy trying to find shelter, and he grimaced at the thought of Sammy's worry once he found out that he was gone and lost to the storm.

Raising his gaze and squinting his eyes against the drops of water still falling through the foliage, Dean tried to take a peek at the few patches of sky peering back at him to understand if the rain was going to stop anytime soon.

Nope, it didn't look like it.

As if on cue with his thoughts, another flash lit up the sky, immediately followed by the loud roar of its companion thunder. _Well, that was fucking close_ , Dean winced in the second it took for him to cover his now-ringing ears: instead of dying down, he was getting the impression that the storm was actually getting _worse_.

Weren't tropical rains supposed to be heavy but short? Because it sure as fuck didn't look like that at the moment! He only hoped that the lightning kept darting up through the clouds like they'd been doing so far and didn't decide that the ground near him was a good spot for them to lay a devastation-inducing claim on.

Not wanting to find out firsthand if staying in one place was going to make him the perfect lighting rod, he resumed his stride through the forest, being careful not to let the slippery ground get the better of him a second time.

As he stepped through the dense undergrowth, he kept his eyes focused on trying to see if he could notice any familiar shapes moving among the bushes and the smaller trees.

His hope had almost completely waned and Dean was about to concede defeat to exhaustion when he heard leaves rustling against one another somewhere further ahead of him. Immediately his attention snapped in the direction of that sound, hoping, in the fraction of second that it took him to focus his gaze on the bushes still waving in the distance, that it hadn't been caused by some kind of wild animal.

"Hey!" he called, suddenly excited when he saw the distinctive upper half of a human-shaped form duck away behind a tree "Hey, I'm here!" he tried again, quickening his pace: he definitely wasn't going to let the guy slip away from under his nose – especially if it turned out to be one of his crew.

He'd almost made it to the line of trees where the shadow had vanished, when everything went to hell.

First there was a blinding light, then the crushing sound of trees snapping under the power of the lightning striking them, and then Dean was flung in the air before he could even properly rationalize what was happening. He hit the ground with a loud groan, feeling his right shoulder scream in pain when he landed on it with the full weight of his body, and he continued his tumble for several feet before finally coming to a stop.

He quickly tried to reorient himself, his eyes wide and his heart drumming in his ears so loudly that it almost covered the crackling sound of wood set on fire. Water was still raining down through the foliage, he vaguely noticed as it dripped into his eyes, but black smoke was quickly filling the air.

After taking a brief glance to his left which confirmed the source of the fire – one big ass tree struck by the lightning and currently merrily swaying its flaming branches in the wind, probably trying to set its brothers on fire as well – he tried to slowly pull himself back on his feet. His muscles were sore and tense from shock, which forced him to take a handful of deep breaths to relax before he could properly roll over on his belly and push himself up.

A pained grimace raised to his face when his body weighed on his right arm and, yup, his shoulder was definitely busted! His day just kept getting better and better!

"Fuck..." he hissed, closing his eyes against the smoke and the searing heat making the air dry, until he finally managed – if a bit unsteadily – to get on his feet. A series of coughs left him when he tried to take a deeper breath, and he suddenly was very aware of the fact that he needed to get the hell out of there before he got caught in the fire: as much as he had witnessed firsthand how heavy rainstorms were around there, he really didn't trust them to extinguish it before Dean was reduced to a chunk of charcoal.

He took a step, then another, and then the loud whine of wood giving up made him freeze on the spot.

_Oh, fuck no_ , was the wild thought that passed through his mind as he raised his gaze to take in the sight before him: the trunk of the same tree that had been hit by the lightning only moments before was splintering and cracking in a way that couldn't possibly bode anything good.

There was a horrifying moment in which Dean was sure that he was going to die. He was going to die in the most painful way, by first getting crushed by a freaking 50-feet-tall tree and then – if he still was alive – by getting burned to death once and for all!

It was only due to years of training that he managed to jump out-of-the-way, he supposed.

Once again he landed on his injured shoulder – and, hello there, pain-induced stars in his eyes! – but at least he could safely say that no part of his body was currently being mistaken for a pillow by an overgrown, flaming twig.

He could feel the heat pulsing from the fallen tree and he knew that he should probably move before any part of him caught on fire, but his body didn't seem to want to listen to him: he was a shivering mess, with adrenaline running wild in his system and his breath coming in quick pants, that really weren't helping in calming him down at all in that already oxygen-deprived environment. Another rough cough left him and he blinked his eyes to make some sense of his blurry vision while he pulled himself on shaky hands and knees.

Swallowing, he closed his eyes to regroup for an instant, focusing on the fact that he was still alive and he intended to stay so. Slowly he felt the shivers subside and, when he his thoughts became somewhat clearer, he opened his eyes once again.

That was when he saw it and froze for a second time: at barely more than a couple of feet from him laid a mass of – frighted – scaly and coiling flesh hissing back at him so loudly that he could hear it even above the noise of trees burning all around them. The snake's eyes were small black buttons, gleaming under the light of the fire and intent on staring straight back at Dean without letting him out of their sight.

_You must be fucking kidding me_ , was all that he managed to think – because, seriously, there _had_ to be some kind of rule against too much bad luck piled up together on the same dude – before the snake hissed again, puffed its hood wider than it already was, and spit venom at his face.

Dean screamed as every nerve of his eyes was set on fire. He raised his hands in an instinctive gesture to protect them, even if it was by then too late to do anything, and curled up on himself while soft whimpers of pain began to bubble up his chest. The burning started from the corners of his eyes, where the venom had landed first, but it quickly spread to his lids, going as far as creeping down the side of his nose. Even his cheekbones felt like the blood underneath his skin was boiling and trying to burst out.

All awareness of what was around him was lost with the wet sobs he didn't manage to bottle up. He wasn't entirely sure himself how he managed to regain enough control over his body to crawl away from both the snake and the fire still roaring around him.

A part of him knew that he needed to get as far away from there as possible, but the pain was making it impossible for him to open his eyes and see where he was going. Blindly he found a depression in the ground and he curled up in it, hoping that it would grant him at least some protection from the heat.

He covered his face with his arms, trying both to protect his already damaged eyes from the smoke and to use the fabric of his sleeves to filter the thick air that was beginning to make his lungs hurt. Every now and then a rough bout of coughs left him and he could feel his skin burning up both because of the fire nearby and the venom that still managed to enter his body, no matter how much he'd tried to rinse it away.

This was it for him, wasn't it? He was going to die in the middle of a freaking rainforest, without even being sure that his brother had made it out of there alive – God, he hoped he did! He hoped Sammy was as far away from the fire as possible! – and no-one would ever know what had happened to him for sure.

A new sob left him, this time out of frustration and helplessness, and he bit down on his dried lips to stop himself from making any more sounds: if that was his Fate, then like hell he was going to give the guy the satisfaction of seeing him crumble. He was going to die. Fine! But he wasn't going to whine about it!

He took a deep breath to calm himself, and only when he managed to bring his pounding heart down to a more reasonable level, he noticed the rustling of bushes nearby, soon followed by the sound of slithering through the high grass.

Something cool brushed against his forehead and he instinctively flinched away, thinking it to be some kind of animal.

"I mean you no harm..." a rumbling voice made Dean freeze before he could try to make more distance between himself and what he'd thought to be a threat. Light fingers touched his forehead and he realized that it had been the newcomer's hand to stroke him only moments before.

"Who—" Dean tried to speak but his question was cut short by a new bout of harsh coughs.

"It isn't the right time." the same voice replied, as its owner moved Dean's hand away from his face, probably to better see the damage inflicted to him during his brief encounter with the local reptilian fauna. The guy had a weird accent that Dean couldn't quite pinpoint, with dragged Ss and Rs that made him sound just a step away from whistling by accident, and a voice so low that it almost felt like gravel.

"We need to leave this place before the fire surrounds us," the other continued "And we need to clean the venom from your eyes before blindness sets in."

"That's definitely good by me." Dean grunted in agreement because, hey, he was kind of fond of his eyes and his ability to see. Slowly he began to drag himself up and, once back on his feet, he reached in the general direction of where he last heard the newcomer's voice, imagining that the guy wouldn't mind lending him a shoulder if they had to get away from there quickly.

He certainly didn't expect the arms that snaked under his knees and around his upper body to pick him up like he weighted nothing at all.

"Jesus fuck!" Dean shouted, tensing up in his rescuer's arm – and didn't that make him sound like a freaking damsel in distress? Fuck! – "I can freaking walk!"

"This way it will be quicker." was the only replied that Dean received in return, feeling it rumble in the other's chest when his shoulder pressed against it. Uh, wait, was the guy naked or...yup, that was definitely a very naked chest! The fuck...?

He would have inquired on the matter – because what kind of person strolled around in his birthday suit during a storm? – but that was when his rescuer began to move and Dean instinctively wrapped his arm around the other's shoulders since WOW how the heck did he even manage to move so quickly and fluidly? Was he one of those weirdos who lived in forests in 'pure contact with nature' and without the aid of any form of technology?

His body didn't feel _that_ strapping...or at least not that Dean could tell from his current position. Then again, the guy managed to pick him up like he was a freaking ten-year-old little girl instead of 175 pounds of well-trained muscles...

Dean kind of wished he could open his eyes to take a peek at him.

Dean should probably sort his priorities and stop thinking about naked men when he was for all reasons and purposes blind, bruised and completely at their mercy.

Also he should probably tell his dick to do likewise.

"You should rest." his thoughts were interrupted by the other's gravelly voice, "We're far enough from the fire and not in any immediate danger: rest, it will let your body focus on fighting the venom off."

"Dude, if we're far enough, you can drop me, you know? I can walk..." Dean repeated, ignoring the protests that he could almost hear coming from his lower belly at that offer.

"I don't mind," the other replied with just the smallest of hesitation in his voice "You really don't weight much..."

Oh, hey, that shouldn't sound that sexy.

"I don't..." taking a deep breath to remind his dick that _it really should stop listening to the guy, goddammit_ , Dean was extremely grateful that he could focus on the pulsing pain coming from his eyes to nip any kind of embarrassing hard-on right in the bud.

"Rest." his rescuer repeated a bit more forcefully, shifting him around in his hold to let him rest his head on the other's shoulder if he so desired. Well...if he put it like that...

"Ok..." Dean quietly acquiesced as he let his body finally relax: now that the adrenaline was beginning to subside, he was starting to notice again all the aches of his body, one by one. There was the dull pain coming from his shoulder, the burning sensation on his cheeks and neck that he suspected to be signs of a venom-induced fever, and the ever present sharp infection of his eyes.

He was also probably going to deal with a variety of blisters from the closeness to the fire. Great.

He wondered how exactly his rescuer managed to feel so cold to the touch in spite of everything.

With a hum of appreciation, Dean let his forehead fall against the other's shoulder, finding the sensation of his cool skin soothing against his overheated face.

"...feels good..." he sighed without realizing it, feeling his body slowly give up under the stress it had to withstand and his consciousness slipping away more and more with every passing second.

His muscles became loose, his thoughts were wrapped in fog, and the last thing he thought he heard before falling asleep was a pleased hiss coming from somewhere above his head.

******

Dean's sleep was completely devoid of dreams. One second he was considering nuzzling against his rescuer's neck to better take advantage of his low body temperature and the next he was starting awake under the pulsing soreness of his injured shoulder.

A groan left his lips before he let his tongue wet them. His mouth was dry and what could be safely passed for a set of rumbas was currently pounding inside his skull, making it difficult to focus enough to remember what had happened to him before he passed out. He tried to open his eyes, but he soon realized that they were covered by some kind of bandage – and, though still not completely conscious, he wasn't stupid enough to remove that from his face: bandages tended to have a reason to be where they were.

"Fuck..." he hissed once the part of his brain reserved for memory managed to finally come back to life, and he shuffled to ease some of the weight from his shoulder.

Ok, he was lost, injured to a degree he still had to fully contemplate – sore shoulder? Check. Injured eyes? Check. Fire-induced blisters? Probably. Various cuts and bruises from his stumbling blind in the forest? Most likely – and in the hands of a stranger he knew nothing about – though the fact that he was still alive kind of reassured him on the fact that at least he wasn't going to get stabbed in his sleep. Also he definitely wasn't laying on a bed, if the layer of coarse fur underneath him was anything to go by. It actually felt like the pelt of something pretty fucking big...

Maybe the guy who saved him was some kind of native, or maybe he was one of those people who decided to ditch civilization in order to be in contact with nature. There had been a time when Sammy wouldn't stop talking about how cool it would have been to leave everything behind to go live in the middle of some unexplored forest, so Dean supposed he wasn't the only one thinking like that. Fortunately Sammy had met Jess a year later and Dean still really needed to give her a thank-you basket for setting his brother back on a track that wouldn't make him die of worry-induced premature old age.

Now Sam still wished to go exploring jungles but at least he did that with an actual fully-equipped expedition at his back.

Fuck, Dean hoped his baby brother was ok and had managed to get out of the storm without getting himself almost squished flat by flaming trees or getting blinded by cranky snakes like his older brother had – hopefully he'd collected enough bad luck for the both of them. It would be at least a bit of consolation to his current situation.

Turning over on his stomach, he let his open hand trail over the short hair of the pelt underneath him, trying to determine just how big it was: wow, that kind of felt like it could safely contain him from head to toe with some inches to spare. Was it some kind of feline? He was sure there were supposed to be tigers in the Eastern Rainforest...

Had his rescuer hunted it and kept the fur? Weren't tigers protected or something?

Fuck, was he a poacher? Dean wouldn't put it beyond his recent luck for him to be saved only to end up in a whole new heap of trouble. If the guy was a poacher, surely he wouldn't want him to know about his dealings, right? He would want to keep his activities secret. That didn't sound promising for his well-being _at all_.

Then again, if the other had intended to get rid of him, the guy could have just as easily left Dean to die a horrible and painful death by fire...

His exploration of the pelt was interrupted when his hand brushed against something cool to the touch. He let the tips of his fingers trail on the smooth surface, not entirely sure what it was – it didn't feel hard, in fact, it felt sort of squishy – and he tried to poke it to test its thickness. It easily gave in but, as soon as Dean withdrew his fingers, it immediately went back to its previous shape.

It kind of reminded him of an inflated balloon filled with thick jelly or something equally dense...

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a definitely human hum just above his left shoulder and the thing he was studying _slithered away_ from under his touch.

"What the fuck was that?!" he flinched back, only for him to bump against what he presumed to be his savior's chest.

"...hmm...a tail..." was the careful answer that he received and, yup, the guy's face was barely a handful of inches from his temple. If he weren't so busy freaking out, Dean would have appreciated the sound of that gravelly voice breathing on his ear.

He would have also pointed out that personal space was a thing.

"Of what?!" he shouted instead, instinctively raising his hand to pull away the bandages on his eyes in order to see for himself what he was dealing with.

"...a...snake?" the man didn't seem very sure about his answer, hesitating like he was trying to find the right word. _So, yeah, English? Probably not his first language_ , a part of Dean's mind took note of that, while the rest of him was still busy panicking: after what had happened the last time he had encountered a slithering member of the reptilian variety, he really wasn't particularly keen on taking that kind of news casually.

"A snake? A SNAKE?! More like a fucking anaconda!" he cried, unable to restrain a shiver at the thought of what could have happened if he'd kept poking it. The thing had been at least twelve inches of diameter under his fingers: he really didn't want to contemplate how easily it would have been for it to swallow his hand!

He finally began to pull the fabric covering his eyes, only for a set of strong fingers to stop him midway through it.

"Don't." the other man said, his voice quiet but firm. "You should keep them covered as much as possible."

"There is a fucking _huge_ snake lurking around and hell if I'm going to stay blind while it crawls nearby!" Dean tried again to free himself from the bandages only for the hold on his wrist to become vise-like. Uh, and there was again the – definitely not hot – almost inhuman strength...

"You would be anyway: your eyes are not yet properly recovered," was the curt reply that he received while the other man prompted him to lay back down "And it's not _huge_..." he added more quietly, as if he were speaking to himself and sounding a bit...miffed? Ok...

"Dude...is that your pet snake or...?" Dean asked, letting himself be pushed down flat on the pelt covering the ground. For several instants he didn't receive any reply and he wondered if he'd offended the other somehow. He didn't think he'd done anything wrong? Granted he'd kind of freaked out a bit as soon as he'd woken up and he had probably confirmed to his rescuer that he was a whole bundle of trouble in a league all of his own, but...

"...no." the answer was stated with a soft huff that he didn't know how to interpret. Silence fell again between them, interrupted only by the sound of water flowing between rocks. This was weird: what was Dean supposed to do? Was he supposed to apologize? He really didn't think he'd said anything strange or offensive and it wasn't like he was used to apologizing to begin with...

Maybe he should thank the guy: he _did_ save his ass after all...

"Is that water?" Dean finally asked when he couldn't stand that uncomfortable atmosphere anymore.

"There is a brook nearby." the man confirmed, his gravelly voice still kept quiet and sort of defensive. Great, now the guy who saved his life was tiptoeing around him like Dean was some kind of dangerous animal. Way to go, Winchester!

"Can I have some? My mouth kind of tastes like shit at the moment." he continued, trying to keep his tone light while he pulled himself up again in a sitting position. He wasn't sounding like an asshole, right? God, he hoped he wasn't...

...and why was he suddenly so concerned with how he sounded? Jesus, almost dying must have scrambled his brain or something...

"Here." he was interrupted when a wooden cup was placed in his hands and he almost jumped out of his skin again. Wow, the guy was freaky stealthy: Dean hadn't even heard him step away and come back to his side.

The water inside the cup was cool and tasty against his tongue, and if he weren't already completely devoted to beer, Dean might have admitted that he wouldn't mind drinking only that for the rest of his life.

"Where are we, anyway?" he asked once he finished.

"My ne—...my home." Dean frowned at the correction, wondering again if the other was some kind of native who just happened to have learned English at some point "It's a cave: the stream I was talking about enters through the back, runs along one wall, and out through the main entrance."

"Uh..." was all that he could say to that because how do you tell to someone that they kind of sound like they lost some screws somewhere for deciding to live in a cave in the middle of a rainforest?

He struggled to find something else to talk about, not feeling particularly friendly after being reminded that he was currently blind and at the mercy of some kind of weirdo. With a sigh he let himself fall back against the short hair of the pelt he had been sitting on, and he wondered once again how the guy looked: maybe if he'd some kind of image to accompany that sort of scratchy, sort of hissy voice, he wouldn't feel so wary about him.

"I'm Dean, by the way." it came out quieter than he'd wanted to, and he immediately began to chew on his lip in a show of nervousness that he wasn't entirely sure where it came from.

For several seconds the other didn't reply and Dean wondered if he hadn't been left alone while his mind was wandering about, then he heard a shuffling sound as the other moved closer, climbing onto the pelt himself and stopping only at a few inches from him.

"I'm Castiel." it was murmured on his face and he could feel something firm – a leg maybe? – pressed against his thigh. The guy didn't seem to have much of a concept of personal space, if their previous interaction was anything to go by, but Dean was beginning to suspect that it was more caused by a lack of understanding of what were acceptable social behaviors than any kind of hidden intentions.

He absently wondered if the other man was still naked.

In fact he wondered if his devotion to nakedness concerned the lower part of his body as well. Maybe he should casually reach out to whatever was pressing against his thigh and find out.

"Hello, Dean." his inappropriate thoughts were interrupted again by Castiel's words: he sounded so delighted about knowing his name that Dean couldn't help a grin in return.

"Hey, Cas." he greeted back.

"I'm pleased to see that you are feeling better. You had a fever for the last few days, but it seems to have run its course now." Dean heard Castiel say while a hand brushed once again against his forehead; it was still pleasantly cool to the touch.

"Thanks for that by the way." he cut in, feeling that now that he was a bit calmer he should at least act like a decent, grateful human being.

"You're welcome." Dean could almost hear the pleased smile in those words and another grin tugged the corners of his lips. Castiel's hand was still lingering on his skin, fingers brushing away unruly strands of hair that were sticking to his face, but he found that he didn't mind it as much as he probably should: if his rescuer had wanted to do anything to him, he would have already, right?

"Your eyes are also healing rather well," Castiel added helpfully, unaware of what was passing through Dean's mind, "The last time I changed the bandages, the swelling had greatly subsided, so I'm confident you will regain your full sight."

And ok, now that the other had confirmed just how near he had been to actually becoming blind, he supposed he should add that too to the reasons to feel grateful at the moment.

"I will apply more ointment and change the bandages later, before nighttime." Castiel continued, still moving strands of hair around like he wasn't entirely sure what to do with them, making Dean ask himself what was fascinating his rescuer so much. His confusion only multiplied tenfold when careful fingers drew the outline of his left ear with such a level of hesitation that it made him wonder if Castiel thought he was going to get bitten by it or something.

"Oh..." the fact that the other sounded genuinely curious only prompted him to frown.

"What? Never seen an ear before?" he asked, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, not in an 'am I about to get sexually harassed?' kind of way but more on the line of 'is he treating me like some kind of weird animal or...?'. Instinctively he scooted away to put at least a bit of distance between them, raising his hand at the same time to cover the molested part of his body.

"...Yes. No..." he could hear the frustration seeping through Castiel's voice "...not quite like yours" he concluded, pausing before adding almost sheepishly "They have a very pleasing shape."

Right...

"Ok, dude?" Dean sighed, instinctively raising his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose only to find his efforts partially hindered by the bandages wrapped around his face "That sounded totally creepy."

"Oh..." and again he was being met with confused curiosity "I apologize if it made you uncomfortable, I was merely being truthful."

"Yeah, that's why I haven't tried to deck you yet."

"No, it's because in your current state you wouldn't be able to, even if you tried." Castiel replied with what sounded distinctively like amusement and, hey, his rescuer was now joking with him. Dean considered it a win.

"I'm pretty good at throwing fists, you know?" he grinned, feeling himself relax again.

"I don't doubt it, but I'm stronger and faster than you." Castiel stated in return "Also: you're blind." he added with such a deadpan tone that Dean couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. Ok, yeah, the guy wasn't so bad: he said weird stuff but the more he talked to him, the more Dean suspected that any kind of weirdness was caused more by lack of social interaction than any malevolent intention.

"Well, I have to give you some handicap to make it fair, right?" he grinned. The fact that he just had the instinct to add a wink at the end of that statement should have probably made him pause, but he decided that he could safely ignore it since flirting was his default mode – no matter how weird doing that with someone whose face he hadn't even seen so far could be.

"I assure you there is no need for that." the other hummed, shuffling closer once again. Dean could almost feel his...well, not warmth since the guy didn't seem to give off much of that, but he was definitely aware of his presence just a few inches from him. Not to mention the fact that he could feel again what he supposed to be a leg pressed against his outer thigh.

"Cas, personal space?"

"Personal spa— oh!" as if startled by his words, Castiel immediately shifted back and put a more reasonable distance between them "I apologize again. I didn't realize it was my whole presence that made you uncomfortable."

Castiel didn't sound offended – more like he was taking note of a new piece of information, really – but Dean winced anyway at his wording. It wasn't that the other's presence bothered him per se, it was just fucking weird that he kept staying at less than five inches from him.

That thought didn't help in making him feel any less of a douche though...

"It's not..." he bit his lips, trying to find the words to explain the issue "It's not _you_ that bothers me...I just...normal people don't stay that close unless they're having sex!" he blurted out and wow, he should probably learn to think before actually saying what was passing through his mind, because there was no way that wasn't going to make things _worse_. He could almost picture the frown on the other's face – or well, he would if he'd any idea how Cas looked, this whole blindness thing was going to make him go nuts with frustration.

"That is not my experience..." was the careful reply that he received "Also, I wouldn't mind breeding you."

Jesus fucking Christ.

"Ok, first of all: don't use the word _breeding_ ," Dean could feel an attack of hysterics begin to creep on him "Secondly: let's agree that any sex talk is put on hold until after I get my eyesight back, ok?!"

"...you were the one to mention breeding first..."

"Don't call it _breeding_!" he'd never felt the urge to facepalm so strongly before, but he wasn't entirely sure his eyes would appreciate it if he actually followed through with his instincts "Just...don't stay so close to me that I end up bumping into you by accident" he sighed "Can we change the subject now, please?"

"...I don't see why you are so flustered by it. Breeding is perfectly natur—"

"CHANGING SUBJECT NOW!"

Castiel huffed, like he was dealing with a particularly troubling child, but he seemed to finally get the gist of 'NOT TALKING ABOUT IT'. The last time Dean had felt so embarrassed by a conversation about sex, it had been when Sam was still a kid and he'd to explain to him why his dick had suddenly decided to raise for some morning exercise.

On the bright side, Cas didn't as much as bat an eye at the idea of having sex with another guy, which played to his advantage.

Not that Dean was thinking about having sex with his rescuer – whose face, he'd like to remind his dick, he still had to see. He was just taking note of the situation.

In case it became relevant for the future.

Of course.

Hum...

"Are you hungry?" the sudden question made him start. Especially when his stomach, as if hearing the discussion change to include it, decided that it had been ignored for far too long and began to growl. Loudly.

"I think that's a resounding 'yeah!' from my body." he grunted: now that it had been pointed out, he realized he was kind of starving actually.

"I've some fruit." Castiel commented as he pulled away once more. The sound of wood clattering against stone made Dean wonder what exactly the other was doing now and he took a second sip of water from the bowl still resting in his lap. He wasn't really a fan of fruit, but he supposed it was better than vegetables, and he had to admit that some of the species that grew around there kind of appealed to his sweet tooth. Incidentally they also tended to be the weirdest-looking ones.

"Here," Castiel took the empty cup from Dean's hands and replaced it with a bowl "I...I also caught a prey this morning but I'm not entirely sure you would eat it the same way I do..." he added, hesitation lingering in his voice.

"Dude, it's meat: as long as you aren't trying to feed me snakes we're good." Dean frowned while he felt the fruit in his lap: it was round-ish, kind of pear-shaped and about the size of a large orange, but it felt very hard and rough under his fingers. He wasn't entirely sure he would be able to break it with his teeth.

"...I eat it raw."

Ok, weirdness just kept piling up around this guy...

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to do the same, that's for sure." he sighed, feeling again the urge to rub the bridge of his nose because just _what_ , "I don't want to sound like an ungrateful asshole, but can't you cook it or something?"

"I wouldn't know how." was the reply he received, and Castiel voice was so filled with honest contrition that Dean didn't doubt it one second "I have never done it before. I know how to start a fire, but I use it for warmth" he heard the other move until a hand reached out to pluck the fruit from his fingers "Also, from what I understand of your people, you have unreasonable qualms about eating certain animals."

"I've seen people eating _scorpions_ around here," Dean grimaced, suppressing a shiver of disgust at the memory, "I think I'm allowed to decide what goes and doesn't go into my belly."

Castiel didn't immediately reply, but he heard him move again at his side. There was the loud sound of wood hitting something harder for several times in a row and, when the fruit was placed back in his hands, it was split open, its outer shell cracked against what he imagined to be some rock on the ground.

Carefully raising it to his face, Dean took note of the sweet, flowery smell as he traced a broken edge with his thumb.

"I can't say I disagree in that particular instance: scorpions are vicious, venomous and aren't really worth the trouble," Cas commented as he stole another fruit from the bowl still resting in Dean's lap, cracking it open as well, probably to eat it himself. "But your people are always so picky: food is food. You should eat it whenever you have the occasion since you never know when you're going to go without."

Well, that made sense. If the guy was used to living in the middle of the forest all by himself and to provide for his own food, Dean supposed it was reasonable enough that he would eat whatever he could get his hands on, no matter how odd the preys he caught were. It still was fucking weird that he ate his meat raw, but who was he to comment on other people's tastes? He got enough shit from Sam for his supposedly unhealthy eating habits that he wasn't about to do the same to the guy who saved his life.

He wondered what exactly had prompted Castiel to live on his own in the middle of no-where to begin with...

With a considering hum, he finally sank his teeth into the fruit still resting in his hands: its flesh was sweet, with a soft consistency that sort of reminded him of marmalade, so much so that it might have pulled a quiet moan of pleased surprise out of him.

"Hum, this would be good to make pie filling." he commented, licking his lips before starting to eat the other half of the fruit.

"Pie?" the slightly confused but somewhat curious query made him stop before he could take another bite in, "What is pie?"

Dean would have sent him a horrified look if he weren't blind.

He could understand Castiel's disregard for personal space, given his inexperience with social interaction.

He could bear him calling sex 'breeding'.

He could even accept the fact that he apparently ate his meat raw like a freaking wild predator.

But not knowing about pie was absolutely inconceivable!

"As soon as I get my eyes back, I'm going to make you pie." he stated, his voice making clear that he wouldn't accept any protest on the matter.

"But..."

"Dude, I'm going to make you a pie." Dean would have glared at the unconvinced hesitation in his rescuer's voice, "I don't care how, but I'll find a way to bake you one."

"I..." the other's voice still didn't sound very convinced "...if you'd like to, I guess?"

"Good." he commented, going back to eating his fruit like he hadn't just bullied his savior into accepting that he was going to receive a thank-you pie as soon as Dean could physically do more than sitting around like an idiot.

But seriously, it was _pie_! How could the guy not know about pie?! It was a crime!

He almost didn't notice when Castiel sneaked another one of those hard-shelled fruit in his hand. Once again, it was already cracked open.

"Hey, you know I can take care of it on my own, right?" he commented while he brought it to his mouth "I'm blind, not crippled."

"I don't mind." hummed the other in return, moving like he was trying to find a more comfortable position. Or maybe relieving a sleeping limb, who knew! It was difficult to understand what was going on around him just by the sound of it. Normally, not being able to see would make him wary and jumpy, but by now he was sufficiently convinced that his rescuer had no ill intentions toward him, so he found the whole situation just slightly annoying.

Besides, it was a temporary state anyway...

"Dude, you aren't trying to fatten me up to eat me, are you?" Dean asked.

"Of course not." Castiel huffed at those words, as if he found them ridiculous at best. "I don't eat humans: I was told they taste horrible."

An amused snort left Dean at those words and then, in less than a couple of seconds, he was full out bending over in laughter: he sounded so _serious_ and _outraged_!

"I'm joking, Cas." he managed to say while he shook his head. So, apparently, together with some sparse trouble with English, his rescuer also had difficulties in deciphering friendly banter.

Speaking of which...

"By the way," he began after taking some deep breaths to regain some composure. "How come you speak English?"

"Ah, that would be because you aren't the first person I meet who speaks that language."

"Really?" Dean couldn't picture how that would have gone down exactly: maybe Cas hadn't been living in the forest for too long and he had been born in one of the villages scattered around the forest's outskirt? Now that he thought about that, it made much more sense than the idea of a kid strolling around alone in the wild. This wasn't _The Jungle Book_ , dammit.

"Did the guy end up lost like I did?"

"No, he was a...researcher, I think he called himself that." the other continued, his tone musing like he was trying to recall to memory events that happened many years before. "His name was Jimmy and he was here to study plants." he paused and Dean frowned when he heard him move again: seriously, the guy couldn't stay still for five minutes straight.

"He had his...home near the border of the forest at the time." Castiel continued, "I was still living with my siblings, I was still very young and...I lost my way..." his voice was quiet, like he was remembering the fright of being alone in the forest, without an adult there to take care of him. "There must have been poachers somewhere because I was caught in one of their traps. The ones that look like jaws."

Bear traps.

Dean grimaced, knowing how badly that could have ended: it was a fucking miracle that Cas hadn't lost a leg. Especially if he had still been a kid at the time.

"Fucking poachers." he grumbled, his hand blindly raising of its own accord to move in the other's general direction. Once his fingers found Castiel's arm, he squeezed it gently in solidarity. Dean could appreciate hunting, but poachers as a whole category made him want to punch them on the nose. Hunting had certain rules that you had to follow, otherwise you could as well go doing something else! Assholes who didn't abide to them either out of spite or to gain easy money, only deserved a serious beating in his opinion.

"I quite agree with the sentiment," Castiel grunted, his voice becoming scratchy and hissing for an instant before he continued, "I was fortunate that Jimmy found me: he brought me to his home and treated my wound." his tone relaxed again, becoming lighter, as if just talking about his rescuer made him happy. "He had a daughter, Claire, and they taught me your language together because she insisted she wanted to talk to me. After I healed I came back to visit them several times for that reason, but..."

His voice died down and Dean instinctively tightened his hold on the other's arm: it was easy to guess from the way he interrupted himself that that story wasn't going to end happily ever after.

"His...wife didn't like me much," Cas slowly commented, "I think she found me strange because I happen to look so much like her...husband even if we're obviously not related, and she was scared I might harm her daughter."

Dean frowned.

What the heck kind of a connection was that? People looked alike all the time, there wasn't anything weird about it. Amusing, yes, weird not so much. Also Cas had been a kid at the time, how was he even supposed to hurt anybody? Especially if he was wounded! Weren't women supposed to have caretaking instincts or something?

She probably had been one of those crazy-protective mothers who didn't allow their children to play outside in fear of a branch dropping on their heads or something equally unlikely. If that was her level of protectiveness, he was surprised that their family had been living so near to the forest. Then again, if her husband had to move there for work, she probably hadn't had any word in the matter...

His thoughts were interrupted when Castiel resumed his story.

"There was an accident: Claire fell from a small tree while we were playing and she scratched her arms and...knees. Her mother found us soon after that and thought I'd harmed her." he paused like he was trying to find the right words to continue, "I think it would have been fine if Jimmy had been around, but he was out gathering plants for his work. She started to shout at me but I don't think she really meant to harm me. I think she was just scared that something might have happened to her daughter while she wasn't watching her."

The pause that followed was longer than before, and Dean wondered for an instant if he would continue or let the subject drop.

"One of my brothers found us," Castiel said in the end, "He must have noticed that I was sneaking away while my older siblings were sleeping, and followed me. He probably thought that she was going to attack me, so he threatened her first." his voice became tight with distress, prompting Dean, whose hand had still to be moved away from the other's skin, to instinctively rub the nearest shoulder in a gesture of comfort.

"I convinced him that I wasn't harmed and to go back to our siblings before anyone was injured, but they decided I should be watched constantly for the next few weeks to make sure I wouldn't sneak away another time." he concluded with a sigh, "When I was finally left alone again and I was able to go back to my rescuer's home, I found it empty: they must have moved away in the meantime."

Silence fell again between them, until Dean couldn't stand it anymore and let his instincts take over: he slowly trailed a path up the side of Castiel's neck with his fingers, allowing the other plenty of time to move away if that kind of touch bothered him, and then he sank them in his hair. It was longer than his but still short, unevenly cut and sort of unkempt, so Dean didn't feel bad when he ruffled it and leaned closer.

"That sucks." he said, voice filled with understanding: he knew well how hard it was to be left behind when you were still a kid and everyone who gave you affection was God in your eyes.

"But hey, you've got me to keep you company now!" he added with a grin. Castiel didn't answer immediately but he didn't pull away from his touch either. Slowly, he seemed to relax again and a soft, satisfied sigh left him.

"Would you stay with me?" he murmured, his tone subdued for the first time since Dean had woken up. It made his chest clench with the kind of brotherly worry that always used to get him when he was younger and had to care for a sick Sammy.

"Cas, I..." he wanted to, God knew he wanted to tell Cas "Sure" and wipe that sadness from his voice "...I can't. I need to get back to my brother: he probably thinks I'm still lost or worse! I can't leave him like that..."

The other shifted, uncomfortable, and his posture slumped in defeat while he tried to pull away from Dean's touch.

"I understand..." it was murmured so quietly that Dean almost missed it, "Your brother is waiting for you, of course you should go back to him..."

Shit.

"Cas, listen to me." Dean couldn't let the discussion fall in that way "I need to get back to my brother to make sure that he's fine and to let him know that I'm not dead, but that doesn't mean you'll never see me again," he paused to let his words sink properly while he resumed the gentle stroke in the other's hair "It might take a while, but I promise I'll come back, ok?"

The soft, approving noise that his simple promise elicited, was enough to let him breathe again: there was something adorable – almost childlike – in the way that Cas was so readily pleased. A smile raised to his lips and he pulled the other closer to press a kiss on his forehead.

He was fucking doomed, wasn't he? Once you started using the word 'adorable' when referring to a dude there was no turning back, right?

If Cas hadn't decided to take advantage of that moment to completely close the distance between them, Dean might have started to freak out just a little bit; as it was, he felt slim arms slide around his shoulders and a cool forehead pressed against his neck. Wild hair tickled his skin and he instinctively reached out to reciprocate the hug, wrapping his arms around the other's chest.

Dean should feel weirded out, but the truth was that his mind only bothered to remind him that his friend – and yes, after the heartfelt sharing of just a few minutes before, it was safe to begin using that word – was still naked, before promptly shutting down.

"You're very warm..." Castiel hummed, in obvious appreciation while he started to rub his forehead against the nearest surface.

"You're the one who's freaking cold-blooded!" Dean replied, amused, while he let his fingers trail up the other's back. His skin was smooth and silky like nothing he'd touched before – and fuck, he was beginning to sound like a lovestruck idiot – so he allowed himself to explore it with his whole hand. There were two weird lines of little bumps at either sides of Castiel's spine, going from the base of his neck down to...well, Dean didn't dare to go lower than the first half of the other's back at the moment.

He tried to ask what they were – maybe some kind of skin defect? – but he was distracted when Castiel decided to tilt his head up a bit and start to rub their cheeks against one another.

Oh, hey, stubble! Add that to the list of things that made him sexy so far.

Shit.

Dean should probably stop this, shouldn't he?

Things were going to get a hell of a lot more awkward if they continued down that road while he was still technically blind...

Moreover there was something that was insistently rubbing against his leg and, while his lower brain would have normally pointed out that it kind of sounded like the beginning of a porno and that he might as well take advantage of it, he was also nervously aware of the fact that it wasn't _that_ kind of rubbing that was being bestowed on him.

In fact whatever it was, it was wrapping itself around his shin.

"Cas," he stopped rubbing his friend's back to catch his attention "Is that your snake again?"

The other must have been enjoying himself quite a bit, because when he talked he sounded sluggish and uncertain "I don't understand your query...I don't own any snake..."

"Dude, it's wrapping around my leg!" and yup, it had now conquered most of his calf and it was dangerously moving upward towards his thigh.

"That's my tail."

Oh, ok then...

"Your _WHAT_?!" Dean grabbed the other by the shoulders and shoved him back in an instinctive attempt to look him in the eyes, only to groan in frustration when he realized how idiotic that gesture made him look at the moment "You didn't say you had a tail! You said it was your snake!"

He could feel it squeeze tighter around his leg, like it was displeased with his words, and he became even more aware of the fact that it was fucking big: if Cas tightened his hold, he had a feeling that his bones would be easily crushed.

"No." Castiel replied, his tone partially confused and partially displeased, "You asked what tail it was, and I said it was a snake's."

"That's the same thing!" Dean was sincerely beginning to feel slightly agitated, because, if he was understanding the situation correctly, he'd been flirting the whole time with a mytholon! Even worse! With his luck this was probably the mytholon that Sam had been trying to find!

The hell with his skepticism and trying to rationalize what was pictured in a handful of low-quality photos by arbitrarily deciding that they showed only vines: it had been Cas' freaking _tail_ that had been caught in those grainy images!

Completely clueless about Dean's current semi-hysterical state, Castiel replied "No, I was simplifying the situation by telling you what my tail looked like" his tone was gentle and coaxing, like he was talking to an upset child.

"You could have been clearer!"

"I thought it was obvious." and wow, Dean didn't know that a voice could actually sound like an eyeroll "Especially since according to you 'it's _huge_ '." Castiel curtly added.

Shit, he had totally insulted Cas' weight there, hadn't he?

...oops?

"Dude, are you offended about that _now_?!" he groaned, unable to further resist the urge to sink his face in his hands. Maybe if he kept wishing hard enough he would wake up and find out that it had all been a – admittedly very weird – dream.

"...you could have put it more tactfully." was the grumbled reply that he received.

Fucking hell.

What was he supposed to say to that? He knew from previous experience – and one embarrassing instance in which he might have taken a slight swelling for a pregnant belly – that trying to fix verbal faux pas usually tended to end with excruciating pain directed at the more delicate parts of his body.

At least Cas' tail didn't pull away from his leg. That had to count for something, right?

Slowly, allowing the other enough time to intervene, he let his hand inch towards it. Like the rest of Castiel's skin it felt cool under his touch but, differently from his neck and shoulders, it had a sort of silky and leathery feel to it.

"What are you?" he quietly asked when he felt the appendage move under his fingers, as if in search of further contact.

"Hmm, your people call us 'naga'." Castiel replied, sounding a bit dazed.

"Seriously? I thought you guys had gone extinct ages ago..." Dean commented, squeezing what he now knew to be scaly flesh, shifting his hand up where it was wrapped around his left thigh: it was thicker there, so he guessed he must be getting closer to the other's hip. If he even had hips...

Sammy was going to have a field day with this once Dean finally managed to get out of that forest.

"If that is what you believe, then I can only be pleased by it." a breathy sigh followed those words and then Castiel was shifting closer to him, his head sinking once again against the crook of his neck, "From what my siblings told me and from what I have witnessed myself, you want to kill us more times than not: it is my understanding that you used to hunt us for our tails and skin"

Dean felt a weird mixture of disgust and embarrassment at those words: on one hand, the image of anyone purposely hunting Cas like he was some kind of prize made him want to knock their teeth out of their mouth, on the other, he was uncomfortably aware of the fact that his thoughts on mytholons usually weren't exactly friendly either. He didn't go as far as considering the idea of killing them for money or sport – or at least not the kinds that showed some form of intelligence like nagas obviously did – but keeping them safe had never been particularly high in his priorities.

That place had always been reserved solely for humans.

Especially because his job comprised, for the most part, of just that: being part of the Missing Persons Unit of his city kind of ingrained in him for years that people's safety was above everything else. It didn't really help that every time mytholons were found to be the cause of the case he had been currently working on, his head tended to assimilate it as even more proof that they couldn't be trusted without an electric leash around their necks.

And now one of those same creatures that he had considered to be barely above animals, had not only saved his life, but was also willing to take care of him until he was completely healed.

Great. He was a freaking racist.

He could almost already picture the gleeful 'I told you so' that he was going to get from Sam once he told him about his unlikely rescuer.

Unconsciously he wrapped an arm around Castiel's waist, pulling him closer while he kept stroking the other's tail with his free hand: the naga felt small and kind of scrawny against his chest, and Dean wondered once again where all the strength he'd showed during their first encounter was packed up. He gently squeezed the scaly flesh under his fingers and then he let them trail further up to rub the other's back.

"Hey, Cas?" he tried to catch his attention when he felt a nose nuzzle against the back of his ear.

"Hum hum?" was the content, sort of lethargic response that he received.

"Am I groping you?"

Castiel stilled, seemingly pondering on that query with a certain degree of concentration. Even his tail had almost completely stopped squeezing Dean's leg, but the latter could feel its tip twitch against his ankle.

"In a way..." the naga slowly conceded in the end "It is not entirely sexual, but it feels nice." he explained, shifting like he was embarrassed "...and you're very warm..." he sheepishly added, ducking his head back against Dean's neck.

Well, that sort of made sense.

"Should I stop or...?" Dean frowned but the resulting squeeze around his leg was enough of an answer even before the other replied.

"No." he could feel Castiel's tail slowly creep up his thigh, but for now he decided to fake obliviousness in favor of listening to the naga, "As I said, it feels nice, much better than rocks warmed by the sun and definitely more comfortable."

"You're using me as a bed warmer, aren't you?" Dean chuckled, shaking his head in amusement, "I mean, this is where you sleep, right?" he added, patting the pelt under them.

"Yes," the naga sounded amused at that question and he didn't seem about to let him go anytime soon, "Although it's barely big enough when I curl on it."

"Dude, _I_ could sprawl on this thing and still have enough space to fit another adult" he frowned, "Just how long is your tail?"

Silence followed that question. He had the impression it was because Castiel was trying to measure his body without moving from his current position against Dean's chest.

"I'm not sure..." the other finally commented, his tone filled with consideration as he tilted his head back a bit "Around seven times your height, I think."

Sweet mother of apple pie, that was one fucking long tail!

How did Cas even manage to go hunting with that thing? Didn't it get tangled up while he crawled around in the forest?

More importantly: was his whole tail as strong as the naga had shown to be so far? Dean was pretty sure that he'd been told at some point – probably by Ben during that 'reptiles are the coolest pets ever' phase he had going on some months ago – that snakes could be freaky strong for their size.

In the light of this realization, a part of his brain began to wonder if Cas would be able to lift him and manhandle him with just his tail if he got a good grip around him. Better yet, would he be able to pin him down and fuck his way into him even while he struggled to get fre—

"That's pretty long." he said, trying to divert his thoughts from continuing down that road: he was pretty sure that popping a boner in the middle of a completely harmless conversation was embarrassing no matter the species involved.

"Not even Michael's tail is as long as mine," even if Dean hadn't noticed how Castiel's chest seemed to puff out, further pressing against his own, the naga's self-satisfied tone would have been enough of a clue of how proud he felt about it.

He had no idea who Michael was, but his friend's reaction made him chuckle in amusement nonetheless.

"You're totally preening, aren't you?" he asked, the smirk on his face growing wider, "Is this the naga version of big feet?"

"I don't understand your query..." Dean really should stop finding Castiel's confusion so adorable.

"You know 'big feet, big...'?" he grinned, waving his hand to vaguely point between his legs, "So is it 'long tail, big coc—'?"

"I wouldn't know," the naga interrupted him before he could complete the sentence, his tone suddenly demure. So much so that Dean had the legitimate doubt he was being bullshitted: after all, that was the same guy who'd been talking about 'breeding him' like there was nothing weird about saying it to his face.

"I have not much experience in that regard aside from my older brothers." Castiel added, shuffling a bit, his tail creeping another inch higher until it was almost resting in Dean's lap.

Yeah, definitely bullshitting.

"Cas?"

"Uhm?"

"What are we doing?" because really, in spite of how easy it felt to talk with the other, Dean was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him for flirting with a guy – who wasn't even strictly a guy to begin with, but a cross between a giant snake and a human – whose face he still had to see. Not to mention that he'd basically only known for one day.

"I am taking care of you until you're completely healed," Cas' gravelly voice replied at barely an inch from his ear, "Then I would very much like to breed you. Possibly several times." he sounded so _gleeful_ at the idea of fucking Dean, that the latter couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine at those words. It didn't really help that he could feel Castiel's cool breath brushing against his skin with each inhale.

Evidently the naga didn't have the same – if barely there – reserves that Dean had regarding the fact that they didn't even know each other. Not that he hadn't had his number of one-night stands before settling down with Lisa, but the general approach he was used to usually implied going to some kind of bar, drink a few beers and then chat up the first hot and available-looking woman – sometimes man – into leaving together. Certainly not him being propositioned by a mytholon while momentarily blind.

"Dude, you do realize that sounds kind of creepy right?" he tried to go for reproachful but his voice came out a bit hoarse instead, and he was forced to swallow against the sudden dryness of his mouth. "I mean, I don't even know how you look..."

"Would you like to touch my face? Perhaps that would help..." Castiel suggested, his reply sounding so pensive that Dean didn't doubt even for an instant that the naga was earnestly trying to make him feel more at ease, no matter how much his words sounded like the worst come on ever.

Dean shrugged "Maybe?" he replied carefully – although he had to admit he was kind of curious. He only hesitated for a couple of instants before reaching out in the direction of the naga's voice. His fingers soon met a stubbled cheek and he used them to cup the sharp line of Castiel's jaw. He let his thumb trail down until it brushed against a pair of chapped lips, which twitched at the first touch, but he quickly moved away to trace the straight line of Castiel's nose, not wanting to make the situation more awkward than it already was.

"Hum...you have scales on your cheekbones..." he noted when he felt the familiar leathery texture under his pads.

"And on my forehead," the naga supplied "They go down the sides of my face and the back of my neck."

Dean raised his other hand to confirm this and then let it rest on the nearest shoulder to resume his exploration of the other's face.

"So you got both skin and scales, uh?" he asked, finally dragging his fingers through soft and messy hair. As he gently scratched Castiel's scalp, he had the impression he was missing something, but he immediately dismissed that line of thought to focus on more interesting matters: the locks under his digits felt uneven, possibly because the naga hadn't bothered to do more than cutting them whenever they grew too long for his liking, and, as Dean studied them, the mytholon let out a contented sigh, leaning into his touch like a cat in search of heat.

Uh, apparently nagas had a thing for body warmth. It made kind of sense considering that they apparently were cold-blooded. It also explained why every time Dean focused his attention back on the tail resting in his lap, he found that it had wrapped just a bit tighter around his waist.

"Mostly scales." the other explained, tilting his head to nuzzle against the palm of Dean's hand, breath tickling against sensitive pads while he continued, "Skin around my eyes and my mouth, down the front of my neck and...u-under my hands." his voice stuttered a bit when Dean shuffled closer – as much as the heap of tail wrapped around his waist allowed him to – and cupped Castiel's face with his fingers in an attempt to understand just how much the naga enjoyed the difference in their body temperature.

"Dean..." his name was whispered with such wonder and contentment that a fond smile made its way on his lips. Cas really needed to stop being so adorable or he might end up doing something very stupid. Like kissing him.

God, this was getting ridiculously chick-flick-ish even if he was pretty sure that those movies usually tended to avoid interspecies shenanigans.

Then again: sparkling vampires...

"You're such a warmth hog." he grinned, rubbing his thumbs in slow circles against the other's cheeks, petting him like he'd seen Sam do to stray cats plenty of times.

"...feels nice..." Castiel drawled, his voice coming out thick and kind of groggy.

"Don't fall asleep on me." Dean chuckled when he felt the full length of the naga's tail relax all around him into a boneless mass of scaled flesh. The reply he received wasn't entirely coherent, in fact, judging by the hissy intonation of it, he wasn't even sure that the other had tried to speak English at all.

"...feels nice..." the naga repeated, tucking his head against Dean's neck and shifting closer to press their chests together in an attempt to steal even more heat from the warm body of his human friend.

Dean was very grateful that he was still wearing clothes.

Very, very grateful.

Especially when he felt the other squirm to straddle his lap – or at least to try the closest equivalent, considering the general lack of legs involved – and he ended up with what he supposed was Castiel's belly pressing against his crotch. _Grinding_ against his crotch while the naga moved around to find a more comfortable position for his tail.

He bit down on his lower lip to stop himself from moaning at the friction and he pressed his nose against the side of Cas' head to preventing him from seeing his expression: he was pretty sure that even the socially-inept naga would be able to recognize the arousal coloring his face if he laid his eyes on him.

Taking deep breaths to convince his dick that it really wasn't the right time to try to catch his attention, he inhaled the smell of dry leaves and something that kind of reminded him of apple pie.

Wait, was that _cinnamon_?! What the fuc–

Uh?

He blinked, finally realizing what had given him the impression that something was missing while exploring Castiel's face just a few minute ago.

"Cas." he murmured against the other's hair, filing up the whole cinnamon thing in a corner of his mind for later questioning since he'd more pressing matters to talk about at the moment, "You don't have ears...?" it wasn't really a query, seeing as the uninterrupted mass of short hair covering the side of the naga's head was kind of obvious, but the whole weirdness of it still made him sound uncertain nonetheless.

"Of course I have ears." and oh, hey, that was an amused snort, wasn't it? Add that to the things Dean managed to make Cas do.

"No, you kind of don't..." Dean replied, dragging his fingers through Castiel's hair to further underline his point. He had the impression that the silence following his words was the kind that parents tended to fall in when their kids asked a particularly weird question.

"Dean, I don't have an outer shell like you do, but I do have ears. How else am I supposed to hear you otherwise?"

"I dunno...weird...magic-y thing-y?" he ventured. Not that magic actually existed – not the whole 'I curse thee to a life of torments' mumbo jumbo – but, from what he'd gathered from his brother's geeky monologues, any living – or semi-living – being whose internal working couldn't be completely explained through science was classified as a mytholon. Sure, there had been theories about how they came to be – one of the most popular ones regarding the possibility of a sort of Mother of All walking the Earth ages ago and from which all mytholons derived – but no-one had found any conclusive answer so far.

He only realized just how silly his comment must have sounded when Castiel seemed to decide that he needed to show him a more direct proof of his claim. Reaching out to tangle their fingers together – and he really _did_ have skin under there – the naga pulled Dean's hand until he brushed against what felt like a small hole underneath the naga's hair.

Now that he felt it under his fingers it was kind of obvious how the whole hearing-thing worked for the other. In his defense: weird mytholon biology was weird mytholon biology, and he tended not to take anything for granted when it came down to them.

"Is that why you have a fetish for my ears?" he asked, remembering how Castiel had reacted to them.

"They look very nice," the naga confirmed "And your skin has a very pleasing color and pattern." he added, making Dean frown in return.

"...pattern?" he slowly prompted, not entirely sure what the other was referring to.

"The dots on your skin." Castiel supplied, tracing his cheeks and nose as if he were studying them. "Do they help with camouflage? Is that why they're darker?"

Dean had to bite down hard on his lips not to snort at the other's earnestly curious question.

"Those are freckles, Cas. They aren't for camouflage or anything like that. It just happens sometimes to people with light skin when they stay under the sun for too long."

Of course the naga wouldn't know what freckles were if he didn't get much exposure to humans: he was mostly covered in scales and Dean was pretty sure those couldn't get freckles even if Castiel tried to roast himself all day long.

"...your pattern changes with sunlight exposure?" he didn't need to be able to look at the naga's face to know that the mytholon was frowning in confusion.

"Dude, it's not a pattern," he chuckled "They're just dots. It's something to do with melanin and stuff. My brother would probably know how to explain it to you better than me: I'm not entirely sure how it works either, I know only that I get a buttload of them every time I stay more than five minutes under the sun."

"Uh..." Castiel seemed to carefully consider his next words for several instants before he asked "Would you go under the sun now?"

Dean burst into a disbelieving laugh at the hopefulness in the other's tone, and he shook his head in amusement as he ruffled Cas' hair. The naga didn't seem to mind.

"Dude, no." he finally answered when he could breathe again without snickering "I'm pretty sure I've blisters from the fire in places I don't even want to consider: staying under the sun is definitely not an option right now."

"But I took care of those..." Cas' voice sounded a bit petulant, like he suspected Dean of purposely hampering his fun just for the heck of it and he was finding this behavior completely unacceptable in the light of his curiosity, "I put ointment on them and they're mostly healed..."

Oh, that explained why the only part of Dean's body that was still hurting was his shoulder. Now that he thought about it, he should have noticed the glaring lack of burning pain earlier.

Though, to be fair, he'd been kind of busy with his weirdo rescuer...

"Another time." he insisted, his tone coaxing "You wouldn't want my burns to get worse now that they're mostly healed, right?"

"I suppose..." Castiel conceded, still sounding like a kid whose favorite toy had been stolen from under their nose, "But once you're healed, you will show me." he demanded more forcefully.

"Sure." Dean chuckled in return "And speaking about sunlight...mind showing me where the entrance of your cave is? I kind of need to take a leak..." the confused silence that followed made him quickly add "To piss, Cas. I need to piss."

"Ah, you need to relieve yourself..."

He was beginning to wonder how exactly Jimmy used to talk to the naga, considering that the other kept having difficulties with the most common turn of phrases and seemed unable to sound like anything but an old man.

"Can you walk?"

"I think so..." Dean hummed, trying to pull himself back on his feet once the naga had shifted from his lap. A little moan left him when the familiar sensation of pins and needles spread through his legs and immediately a cool hand wrapped around his arm, ready to keep him upright if needed be.

"...'m good." he grunted but he let himself lean briefly in the other's hold while his limbs regained sensitivity, "My legs fell asleep."

"Would you like me to carry you?" the naga offered.

"Dude, no, I can walk: I've been sitting around enough to last me for the rest of my life." Dean replied, shaking his head "Besides, it would be weird." he added, hoping that the flush crawling up the back of his neck at the image that the other's query brought to his mind wasn't too obvious. He wasn't a bride, goddammit! No matter how funny Cas' freaky strength made him feel.

"I don't see why." was the perplexed reply that he received.

"I'm a grown-ass man, Cas! I can't let you carry me around like I'm some kind of damsel in distress!" he exclaimed, his free arm automatically flailing as if to underline that point.

"Well, you aren't female," the naga concurred as he tugged Dean to take a few steps backwards, until he felt his hand brush against one of the cave's wall, "But seeing as you are currently blind, you are indeed in distress."

"...'m still not a girl." Dean definitely didn't pout at that comment. Not at all.

"Follow the wall to your right." the naga replied, only continuing with the discussion once he complied, "I fail to understand how carrying you in my arms would change your genitalia."

As he took the first careful steps, Dean grimaced a bit, eerily reminded of a conversation he once had with Jo during one of the nights passed getting wasted at the Roadhouse. After a nightmare-inducing day of dealing with one false call after another from overzealous parents thinking that their kids had gone missing – when in fact they'd all just decided to skip classes – and the news that one of the girls his unit had been searching for in the last few months had been finally found dead in a ditch at the side of a road in the middle of fucking no-where, with no apparent clue to lead to her killer, he'd naturally gravitated towards the bar with the intention of getting as much alcohol in his system as humanly possible without poisoning himself.

It had been after Ellen, the Roadhouse's owner and Jo's mother, had threatened to kick his ass if he continued to come to her bar and get drunk every time he had a shit day at work, that Dean had finally decided that moving to a different subject with the younger – and less scary – Harvelle lady in order to protect his – frankly much appreciated by the public – behind was the safest course of action.

That had been when, more drunk than he'd realized, he'd fallen with her into a game of 'I'd hit that' which had soon degenerated into a game of 'I'd do that' and it had somehow turned into him admit that, after all the time spent making decision at his job, he might like giving up control and being manhandled in bed a bit too much for his macho persona's comfort.

Once realized what he'd let slip, he'd almost freaked out, but Jo had been cool about it and promptly set him straight by punching his arm and commenting that 'Getting literally swept off your feet and pinned to a bed won't make your dick fall off'.

"It wouldn't, it just..." a frustrated groan left him when he focused his attention to the mytholon still waiting for his reply. How was he supposed to explain gender stereotypes to a freaking naga?

"People traditionally do that to women, ok?" he finally said. "So when you offer to do that, it sounds like you're implying that I'm a girl." he concluded, wincing even before the last word left him: he could almost feel on his skin the scorching glare that Sammy would send his way if he heard that kind of reasoning coming from him.

So maybe he deserved the disbelieving scoff that his words raised from his reptilian friend.

"Unless your species changed _considerably_ in the last few decades, you're obviously male" Castiel remarked "And I still don't understand why being compared to a female would bother you so."

Dean didn't answer, mostly because the only replies that immediately came to his mind made him also sound like an asshole, and he wasn't in a particular hurry to be classified as such by the mytholon – he was pretty sure that, so far, the other considered him at least an ok guy.

"Your people consider being compared to a female insulting, is that what you're saying?" when Dean nodded at his query, he heard a small, bewildered "Oh." follow his confirmation, almost as if Cas didn't know what to make of that newfound knowledge about humans.

He bit his lower lip, suddenly feeling nervous again and he hurried to add "Not everyone is offended. Sammy, my brother, he makes these epic bitchfaces every time I say shit like that."

He paused, unsure for an instant about how to make the other understand what was passing through his head: he'd never been good with words to begin with, but, for some reason, he felt like he couldn't just let the subject drop like that and make the whole of humanity look like a bunch of assholes. Admittedly there was a great number of assholes in the world, but there were also good people. There were his brother, his parents, Bobby, Ellen and Jo, and Lisa. Even Ben was growing up to be an ok kid in spite of all the little shits he'd seen going to his same school, and he wanted Cas to know that.

"It's dumb. Heck, some of the scariest people I know are women! I once saw a high-school girl dropkick a guy who tried to steal her smartphone and he was, like, a foot taller than her and double her weight!" he continued, his hands waving around while he tried to drive his point across as quickly as possible. Fingers again wrapped around his arm and coaxed him back to move closer to the wall, but he didn't mind it: he hadn't even noticed that he'd stepped away from it at some point.

"It's just that everyone keeps telling you that women are weaker and you should protect them. So it kind of is implicit that if you get compared to a woman, you aren't being good at being a proper man or something." he finally sighed, his hand automatically moving to scratch the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Castiel didn't immediately comment on his outburst but he didn't doubt that the naga was carefully considering his words.

"It _is_ very weird." the mytholon admitted in the end, sounding so confused that Dean couldn't stop a small snort from escaping him.

"I take that it's not the same for nagas, uh?" he asked, feeling more relaxed as he finally resumed his walk towards the entrance of the cave. The hand on his arm moved to lightly touch his elbow, hovering there like the naga were still tempted to bodily carry him around.

"No, it isn't." Castiel concurred with a soft chuckle, "Our females are venomous and they can kill a tiger with _a bite_." he began to explain, his voice coming from somewhere just above Dean's right shoulder, "Males are not that fortunate and the only hope for us to defeat larger predators is to take them unaware and suffocate them with our tail before they can attack us themselves."

Dean nodded in understanding: it kind of reminded him of spiders and how females tended to be more dangerous and vicious than males. Hell, they usually were even dangerous towards their own mates!

"It's why females guard the nest and the eggs while males go hunting: there is not a predator that would willingly try to harm our hatchlings while they are around." the naga continued, "Being compared to one of them would be considered a high praise because it would mean being as deadly as them in spite of lacking any venom."

Eh, that sounded like the exact opposite of what happened with humans: where men had always left women behind to 'take care of the house' while they went gathering food for the family, female nagas willingly didn't leave their nest in order to protect their kids.

Dean briefly wondered how it was possible that a whole race of reptilian mytholons seemed more fiercely protective of their youngs than mammals were. He should probably add that to the list of things he was going to tell Sammy once he was able to go back to civilization. If he wasn't careful his sasquatch baby brother was going to have a stroke from all the sweet info he was going to bring back from his ordeal: he could already picture him fussing over him to get every single detail of his stay with Castiel, and Dean already knew he wouldn't be able to keep anything from him.

He was an awesome brother like that.

"Well, fuck. Your girls are kind of awesome..." he admitted in the end, a teasing grin making its way on his lips. The fingers brushing his elbow twitched and then trailed up to wrap around his shoulder as the naga leaned closer.

"According to you, yours are as well, even though they aren't granted the same level of respect for it." Castiel replied, his tone amused as his breath brushed against the back of Dean's ear, causing a small shiver to run up the latter's spine. He hadn't noticed how close the naga had moved again but, now that his focus was back on him, Dean was suddenly aware of the shoulder squeezed against his own.

When a pair of chapped lips pressed against the side of his neck, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

"Cas?" Dean tilted in his head in a futile attempt to look at the naga through the bandages wrapped over his eyes, "What are we doing?" he asked again, his body seemingly now suddenly hyper-aware of how far the other had entered his personal space: there was a hand placed at the small of his back and the tip of Castiel's nose was brushing the sensitive skin just below his ear.

The naga hesitated "I am not sure. I have no previous experience of this kind..." he admitted "But I know that I wish to touch you more."

At least he was direct in his intentions. Dean was honest enough with himself to acknowledge that he liked directness quite a bit.

His dick too apparently, if the interested twitch it gave was anything to go by.

He licked his lips. There was an insistent tingling of anticipation spreading through his limbs and he had to sternly remind himself why it would be a very bad idea to wrap his hands around Cas' neck right now and smash their mouths together.

Originally he'd been wary since he'd woken up in an unknown place, blind and at the mercy of an unknown rescuer: it had made perfect sense for him to be uncertain of what to think about his new friend.

Then, once he'd realized what Castiel was, it had been him belonging to a whole other race that had kept him from doing anything stupid, but now...now he had no idea what his body wanted because the only thing he could think about while the naga was so close to him was how badly he yearned to feel that tail of his wrapped around his body, squeezing and slithering, and so much stronger...

And fuck, Cas was nipping at his skin now. They were little experimental pinches that started at his lobe and then, once the other took confidence with what he was doing, ran up the curve to give a final bite right at the tip.

Dean let out a small whimper.

Freaky naga fascination with his ears!

"Cas..." he breathed slowly. There was a hand cradling his head and playing with his other ear, making it very difficult for him to focus on what exactly he wanted to say. He squirmed a bit, trying to do something about the uncomfortable feeling of fabric pulled tight against his half-hard dick, and he turned to nuzzle against Castiel's hair.

"Cas..." he repeated. He still wasn't entirely sure how he wanted to continue, but the naga seemed to come to a conclusion of his own.

"Yes, you still need to relieve yourself," the sigh that brushed against his neck after those words sounded slightly frustrated: apparently Dean wasn't the only one worked up at the moment.

"You will relieve yourself and then we will go back to my sleeping place and I will touch you more." the naga concluded, sounding as satisfied as he could muster up considering what they just interrupted, before urgently tugging him along.

By the time they reached the entrance of the cave, Dean had somewhat managed to remind his dick that taking a leak with a hard-on was nigh impossible and that, if it wanted for the fun to be resumed, it needed to back off _right this instant_.

"I will wait for you inside," his mental glare at his lower parts was interrupted "There is a patch of grass on your left that you might want to use." the naga added, soon followed by the sound of a scaled body slithering away to leave him some privacy.

"By the way, Dean," the faraway call came while he finally managed to pull his dick out of his pants, "It would be impossible for me to carry one of our females in my arms – our tails are too long to do it comfortably – so you don't need to worry about me treating you like one". there was an amused smile there somewhere, Dean was sure of it, "I just enjoy how warm you are."

Son of a bitch!

With a frustrated groan he quickly took care of his business, tucked himself in his pants and re-entered the cave in record time, following the wall with one hand as he tried not to trip in his haste to get back to that cocktease of his naga friend.

"Cas?" he called when he was relatively sure to be near the other.

"Hmm...here." Castiel's gravelly voice reached him from somewhere at his left and he tried to follow the sound of it as best as he could, one hand instinctively outstretched in front of him to avoid bumping into things.

Of course, now that he was actually being careful to where he was going, one of his feet decided that it might as well get caught up in what he suspected to be some kind of bulging rock, and he found himself falling without anything to hold on.

He was granted just enough time to brace himself and pull his arms tight in front of his face to protect it, before his fall abruptly reached its ending.

It took him a moment to realize it wasn't the hard ground that had met him like he'd assumed it would, but firm, smooth flesh wriggling and coiling in tight curves under him in such a way that it would have been impossible for him to tumble on anything else.

Letting out a slow sigh, he allowed his arms to lower to either side of the section of Castiel's tail that he was currently straddling. His fingers met more scaled surface and he absently began to rub it with gratefulness.

"Thanks..." he murmured, pressing his forehead against the leathery texture of the naga's body and taking a deep breath to calm his thundering heart.

Tripping while you couldn't see where you were going to land wasn't fun.

It wasn't fun at all.

Even if you knew from experience that you would end up with just scratches on your hands and knees, there still was that fraction of a second in which pure terror took over and your head thought 'what if there actually is a cliff in front of me and I'm about to fall to my death?'.

"You're welcome." was the soft-spoken reply that he received before gentle fingers trailed through his hair, caressing his head with affection.

Dean let out a slow sigh, unconsciously leaning into the other's touch, and was rewarded when Cas' tail curled around his leg and waist in a reassuring presence.

"There you go with your ear-fetish..." he mumbled, his body relaxing under the hand playing with the short hair on the side of his head.

"I don't know what that is, but I know I don't have it." it was hummed just above his face and he could feel Castiel's warm breath brushing against his skin.

"Sure you don't." he chuckled, a low, lazy rumble in his chest as he twisted to turn on his back, ending up falling into another hip of writhing flesh "God, your tail's long..." he couldn't help himself from commenting when he felt yet another coil wrap around his leg, keeping him in place while his friend loomed over him.

If only it would move just a little bit higher...

"It is." the naga concurred, that pleased and self-satisfied note once again present in his voice, "And you're very warm." the gravel in Cas' voice had gone even lower than it already was, "I very much enjoy enveloping you in it..."

Dean let out a small whimper.

Fuck, he was hard.

He was definitely hard and the naga hadn't even touched him properly yet.

"I like it too..." he managed to breath out, reaching down to rub the cool flesh resting over his belly.

There was some movement underneath him at his reply and the persistent sensation of something hovering just above his face; then two hands wrapped around his face upsidedown, tips of the thumbs brushing his lips and the remaining fingers cupping his jaw.

He was resting with his head in Cas' lap, Dean realized even in his blinded state, and the other was curled up over him in a protective arc, his tail comforting him with gentle squeezes and the slow sliding of scales on clothed skin.

While the naga had stated more than once his interest in 'breeding' with him, Dean had the impression that Castiel's actions reflected more silent affection than lust at the moment: there was something sweet and careful in the way that he moved, almost as if he feared to harm him by accident.

It made him feel weird, because it wasn't like he was ever treated by other people like he was fragile – or he ever needed them to – but the sensation of Cas' body and tail wrapping in protective curls all around him like that? It was kind of nice.

There were gentle fingers threading through his hair, rubbing each lock with slow attention, as if the naga believed every single one of them deserving to be the center of his focus, before they moved to bare his forehead. Dry lips pressed against his skin and Dean instinctively reached out to blindly sink his hand into the short hair at the other's nape.

"Cas..." he hummed when the naga emitted a sound of appreciation at his gesture.

"You're very beautiful, Dean..." it was murmured in a low rumble near the side of his nose, making him again painfully aware of how tight his pants felt against his hard dick. He could tell what Castiel's goal was now, and, when he felt the other's breath ghost over his mouth, he couldn't stop another whimper from escaping him.

The kiss started with a series of hesitant nibbles, little bites evenly split between his upper and lower lip; then, as soon as the naga seemed to gain confidence in what he was doing, the mytholon shifted to align their bodies and rub their chests together, his tail slithered higher to finally press against Dean's cock. The groan that left him at that delicious pressure was swallowed by a pair of dry lips when his friend finally sealed their mouths together, deepening the kiss.

Castiel's tongue was both eager and relentless in its exploration, twisting and curling in ways that Dean wasn't entirely sure would be possible for a human; it felt flatter and slimmer against his own, with a split tip that explained the naga's ever present hissy drawl. It was also freaking _long,_ if the way it was completely claiming his mouth was anything to go by.

"I thought you had no e-experience..." he managed to breath when he finally was forced to pull away from the kiss to get some air in his lungs, his voice stuttering a bit as the firm flesh keeping his legs apart rubbed his crotch just _so fucking perfectly_ and God he needed to get rid of his pants right the fuck _now_!

"I don't." Castiel replied, his voice sounding rougher than it normally was "But two of my brothers enjoyed talking about their exploits at length – although their stories never included your people. I was hoping your body worked similarly enough to mine..." he added, leaving a bite just below Dean's ear that made the latter buck his hips in return.

"You know what would be great?" Dean gasped when he squirmed in the other's hold only to realize how drenched with precum his underwear already was, "Getting rid of my clothes!"

That turned out to be probably the best idea he had since waking up because, as soon as those words left his mouth, what he could only describe as a possessive and territorial hiss filled the air, and then his pants were being yanked down together with his briefs, leaving his dick finally free from its fabric constriction.

"God, Cas..." he moaned when cool fingers wrapped around it to give a couple of experimental tugs.

"Is this fine?" the naga asked against the side of his face, his voice sounding stuck somewhere between hesitation, curiosity and arousal.

"Yeah. Fuck, yes." he groaned, sinking his hands in Castiel's hair to pull him closer and allow their mouths to meet again. His teeth sank into chapped lips and then he lurched forward to deepen the kiss, his hands sliding down tight shoulders to drag his nails across his friend's back.

When his fingers found again the two lines of ridges running down either side of Cas' spine, a small sound of appreciation was huffed against his cheek, soon switching to a soft moan when he lingered on them.

"Dean..." that needy whine was enough to make him bolder: tilting his head to leave a series of small bites down the naga's neck, Dean let his hand slide down his chest, fingers splayed open to caress as much skin as possible. It felt thinner than on Cas' back but he could still sort of make out the scales if he focused his attention on it, and, like with his arms and shoulders, the muscles underneath it felt compact but firm, built for deadly agility and strength.

He noticed with momentary disappointment the sad lack of nipples – though he supposed it made sense, given that his friend hatched from an egg – but he didn't allow it to discourage him for longer than an instant, instead letting his touch move further down until he reached the height where Castiel's crotch would have been if he'd been human.

Only smooth skin met his fingers, with no trace of the other's dick anywhere, but there was a distinctive bulge and, when Dean squeezed it, the naga let out the loudest moan so far.

"Feels good, Cas?" he asked, brushing his thumb over the uneven protrusion. The whimper that escaped the other was answer enough and Dean – who had many qualities but a lack of opportunism when it came down to sex was not one of them – kept rubbing that sensitive spot.

It was at the third passage of his fingers that he finally noticed the slit.

It was wet and definitely starting to leak.

"Uh, Cas? You're a guy, right?" he slowly asked, inching just the tip of is thumb inside. The following squeeze that the naga gave to his leg was almost painful.

"Of course, I am!" the reply was short and frustrated, and the reason behind the naga's tone became blatantly obvious when he tried to grind against the hand still wrapped around his bulge.

"Then what is–" Dean tried to ask only to be impatiently interrupted.

"It's my sheath! My sexual organs are stored inside of it when I don't need them: we don't keep it outside our bodies for anyone to maim them like your people do!"

"Wait, you mean your dick is–" he started only to snap his mouth shut when he felt something poke the palm of his hand.

Uh, would you look at that...nagas had retractable dicks apparently...

It took only a few instants before Cas' cock was fully resting in his hand, smooth and slick against his fingers from the natural lubricant coating its surface. It was shaped similarly enough to a human one not to feel glaring alien in his hand – the only real difference being a less defined glans – and, when he tried to give it a gentle squeeze, the most delicious groan reached his ears in return.

"Dean..." the mytholon pleaded again while he tucked his face against Dean's neck, hips moving to press their bodies together. His tail was writhing all around them in jerky spams, as if the naga were trying to restrain himself from wrapping the body underneath him with too much of it.

"You can use your tail, Cas." Dean breathed against the side of his head once he understood that, in spite of how they were both panting in barely-coherent arousal, the naga was still holding back, "I can take it."

"N-no..." the answer came in a stuttered whimper when Dean covered both their dicks with his hand and _tugged_ "I...I might hurt you...I'm stronger than you, and my tail is even more so...and I can't control it when I'm like this and–"

"You won't hurt me." he interrupted, squeezing the tips together in such a way that made Castiel gasp and sink strong fingers in his shoulders "You've been very careful with me so far: I know you won't hurt me."

A few more moments passed while the naga let his words sink in, then his tail started to move, coiling around Dean's legs in hesitant loops and trying to pull them further apart. He took a shaky breath when Cas finished to spread him to his satisfaction, and he let his head fall back while he nibbled at his bottom lip, trying to imagine what the naga was going to do next.

Was Cas going to stare at Dean, splayed underneath him, and judge if he was indeed deserving to be bred by him? Was he going to open his legs further apart to reach down and finally take a look at his opening, evaluating if he was worthy of taking his cock deep inside of him?

God, he fucking hoped so!

When the naga leaned in to kiss his neck, their hips grinding once again against one another, Dean couldn't help the loud moan that escaped him. He tried to reach again for their straining cocks but the naga had already wrapped his own hand around them, so he let his fingers move to the other's belly instead, trailing down the smooth surface of his scale until he felt something familiar poking his skin.

"Uh, Cas?" he began, thumbing that new expanse of slick flesh with a hint of hesitation "What is _this_? Because I'm pretty sure I can still feel your dick down there with mine, so what exactly am I touching now?"

"That's my other...they don't usually work at the same time," in spite of the arousal still present in his voice, the naga sounded a bit puzzled himself, like he'd only now noticed what was going on with his lower body parts. "It's not usually like this when I do it myself...this is...it's more intense with you..."

Sweet mother of fuck!

Cas had two dicks.

_Cas had two dicks!_

Dean let out a whimper and he had to bite hard on his lips not to moan out loud at the image that knowledge provided him with.

"Can I..." he swallowed loudly before trying again "Can I jerk them both at the same time?"

"Please do." was the eager reply that he received right against his ear and he breathed out a sigh when Castiel's fingers slowly let his sensitive bits go. He wrapped his hands around the other's two dicks, straining for his attention and twitching with need even at the smallest contact, and he paused to feel their thickness against his skin, while the image of the other pounding his ass with their combined girt made him shiver with arousal.

They would open him up so nicely!

With just a rough push they could make their way through his hole, going deep until they were both snuggly wrapped inside of him and his body burned in that delicious way that meant he was being split apart from the inside out. He would whine at first, putting on a bit of a show for the other when in truth all he would think about was the need to be fucked until he couldn't walk anymore, and he would take it. Oh, he would take all of it, going as far as letting himself fall on his elbows, ass in the air in a clear offer even before he had enough time to get used to the naga's cocks.

Allowing himself a low groan, he tried to focus his attention back on his friend's needs and he began to tease the heads of the two dicks still resting in hand with the tip of his thumb, tracing slow circles around them before pressing the pad of his finger harder against the sensitive skin. A moan left the naga and a pair of lips soon brushed against his ear in a series of small, frustrated nips. The unexpressed prompting was clear enough, so Dean gave a last gentle squeeze before setting up a more paced rhythm.

The sounds that Cas let out after that were the most delicious things he'd ever heard – soft and needy and even a bit whiny when he slowed down to rub at the sensitive, wet skin wrapped around the base of the other's lengths – and Dean was soon painfully aware of how neglected his own dick was, straining against his belly and coating it with the precum that kept dripping out of it.

This wasn't enough. It wasn't even remotely enough!

It was with a sound of frustration he was barely able to recognize as coming from his mouth, that he moved his hand to squeeze just the tips of Cas' cocks and thrust his own between them, slick flesh sliding against slick flesh in the most glorious way and _oh God fuck yes!_

They both moaned each other's name at the same time, but the naga was the first between them to regain some form of coherence: without warning Dean found his mouth assaulted once again by a long and nimble tongue intent on doing its damn best to map every surface at its disposal.

Dean wanted to throw his head back and groan his arousal aloud, but a hand had sneaked in his hair at some point and was now clenching it painfully to keep him in place, while its twin had finally slid under his shirt to caress the sweaty expanse of his chest with greedy fingers.

The strong muscles of Cas' tail squeezed his thighs almost painfully as they coiled further up his legs to pull them even more apart, leaving enough space for scaly flesh to sneak between his asscheeks and rub against his hole. Dean had no idea if the naga knew what he was doing or if he was acting purely on instinct – and really, he had more important things to be focusing on at the moment – but that didn't deter his arousal from spiking up even more.

"Cas...Cas..." he moaned with need as he bucked underneath the other as much as he could, feeling his heart thundering in his chest. He was so close. So close! And by the sound he was letting out, Castiel couldn't be much far behind, so Dean brought his free hand between them to join the other one and squeezed their dicks together, rubbing and tugging _and thrusting and thrusting and thrusting_ until he was finally coming, his head thrown back and his throat shouting his pleasure like he'd never done before.

When he came back, head buzzing pleasantly from the afterglow of one of the best orgasms he'd had in ages, he found that his belly covered in come: he was only vaguely aware of the fact that his wasn't the only one coating his stomach, but he couldn't care less. He felt light-headed and euphoric, and all he could bring himself to do at the moment was to lay there, underneath Cas, and _breath_.

It took him several minutes before he was able to focus again on his surrounding: he could feel the weight of Castiel's body rest against his chest and the naga's head tucked under his chin, as much as he was aware of the tail lazily curling around him, rubbing his sides every so often in an affectionate caress.

"That was very pleasant." Castiel was the first to speak, humming those words against Dean's neck while he traced formless patterns on his chest.

"I sure as fuck hope so. Got a reputation to keep up and all that." Dean chuckled in return, tilting his head to nuzzle against messy hair; his body felt pleasantly buzzed and he was beginning to consider taking a nap.

"Your reputation is safe." the amused huff reached him while he debated if cleaning the mess on his belly was worth the effort or not. He would have to stand – but the lower half of his body wasn't very fond of that idea at the moment – and try to get to the stream Cas had talked about – but he really didn't want to give an encore of his previous tripping performance.

"Cas? Could you do something about...?" he gestured towards his belly, hoping it was clear enough "I kind of don't feel my legs."

The naga nodded against his neck and a part of him mourned the loss of contact when he felt the other's weight pull away from him: Cas' propensity to snuggle was sneakily contagious.

"I'll consider that a praise." Castiel replied, his tail shifting under Dean's body until only a few loose loops were still wrapped around him. Apparently the mytholon was even less keen on separating from him than he was.

A smile bent Dean's lips at that thought, and he laughed when the tip of the naga's tail flicked against his cheek in what he suspected to be some kind of reassuring pat.

"It was." he confirmed with a low chuckle, raising his hand to brush the offending appendage. "And, dude, we definitely need to do that again." he added, a wide grin spreading on his face at the prospective of a repeated performance.

Castiel didn't reply, but the tip of his tail had sneaked its way under Dean's chin, rubbing his skin in a sign of both affection and approval towards his proposition. It flicked a second time against his cheek, making him let out an amused laugh, and then it suddenly stopped moving as if in hesitation.

"Cas?" Dean hummed, instinctively tilting his head to better hear the other moving around.

No sound reached him, but the naga's tail patted him a third time. He almost laughed again when it reminded him of a cat in search of attention, and again he began to rub the other's scaled flesh to let it know that, yes, of course it was the center of his focus.

Castiel's tail hesitated again.

"Cas?" starting to get confused by that behavior – and wondering if he was missing something – Dean tried to catch his friend's attention, only to get the same lack of response in return. Then, after a few more instants of stillness, Dean felt the flesh under his fingers carefully begin to shift, as if testing his reactions, and he froze when he noticed how it was trying to snake its way under his nape.

Only when it was fully wrapped around his neck in a snug – but not tight enough to undermine his ability to breath – loop and rested with no further indication of wanting to move again, did Dean finally relaxed, his limbs suddenly feeling very heavy and his mind falling into a pleasant buzzing state.

"Dean..." Castiel's voice was filled with marvel while he murmured his name, and Dean lazily wondered when the other had moved back to his side. He only absently noticed the damp cloth that was being used to clean his belly from their joined come.

"You're so beautiful..." it was breathed against his hair while gentle fingers began to trace the line of his jaw, a thumb rubbing against his cheek with sweet affection. "You're wonderful. I don't know why I was given such a gift but I'm glad. So very glad..."

Dean wanted to reply that he was exaggerating things, that he really wasn't that much of a catch, but all that left his mouth was a groggy and incoherent mumble.

"You accept me so readily." the naga continued, smiling against his temple "You let me envelope your body with my tail and are even eager for it. You trust me not to harm you..." he murmured with a pleased shiver "You let me wrap my tail around your neck...I could kill you, break you easily and choke the air out of you, but you didn't try to pull away. Not even once..."

"...'ou 'n't going to hurt me..." Dean drawled, his thoughts coming slow and fuzzy, but still confident that the mytholon had never been a threat to him. The happy hiss that his words elicited was worth the effort of opening his mouth in spite of wanting nothing more than to roll himself in Cas' coils and fall asleep against him.

His mind was only vaguely aware of the fact that his trust – so easily given to someone that he'd only known for a day – might have a heavier weight for the other than he gave it credit for.

"No," the agreement was spoken softly against his ear, "I would never willingly harm you."

His lips bent into a smile while he slid his arms around Cas' chest and pulled him closer. The lower half of his body was still naked, but Dean didn't mind it too much since it was being cradled into a hip of smooth flesh. Even his spent dick was being gently covered, as if to protect it from possible outside threats; he wondered if the fact that it didn't retract in his body after being used weirded the naga out and made him instinctively try to keep it safe.

Eh. Castiel, the Cock Shield.

"I don't wish for you to leave." the abrupt confession made him tilt his head in confusion before he properly processed the other's words.

"I don't want to leave either..." he blurted out, feeling his cheek heat with a light blush when he realized what he'd just admitted to. With an embarrassed groan he tucked his head against Cas' neck and squeezed him tighter.

The thing was: it was true.

He really didn't want to leave, and it wasn't like he had anything to go back to now that Lisa had kicked him out once and for all. Sure, there was still Ben, but he doubted that she would allow him to see the kid more than once a week anyway, and, while he liked his job, he wasn't entirely sure that only going back because of it would be enough to satisfy him.

Not to mention, if he went back to Sam and Jess with the news about Cas lurking around the forest, they would probably move more permanently in one of the small towns at its outskirt in an attempt to know more about the naga.

The worst thing about going back to his old life, though, would be the inability to see Cas ever again. He might have only known him for a very short time, but the mytholon had already managed to dig a place in his chest and the thought of not being able to hear his gravelly voice, or to feel his cool scales against his skin, made his stomach twist with unhappiness.

The naga might be awkward, completely inappropriate and unusually naive when it came to human interaction, but he was also adorably straightforward and earnestly eager to help someone he knew nothing about.

He was also disarmingly lonely, and fuck if Dean wasn't at least going try to give Cas a bit of respite from his solitary life.

"I'll come back," he said in the end, voice filled with determination, "It might take a while since I'll have to settle down and find a job here, but I'll come back." adding the next bit directly on the naga's lips "I promise."

The sound of sheer happiness that left Cas was enough to convince Dean that he was worth all the trouble in the world.

 

**EPILOGUE**

A couple of days later, Castiel deemed Dean's eyes rested enough to finally remove the bandages.

As the naga carefully unwrapped the cloth, making sure that it hadn't stuck to the still sensitive skin underneath it, they were both filled with nervous anticipation. Castiel worried that Dean would feel repulsed by him once able to look at him with his own eyes, and Dean couldn't help that small unrelenting doubt that he might have lost his sight after all, in spite of the reassurances he'd received from his mate.

Once the bandages were completely removed, cool hands cupped his face, brushing gentle thumbs over his closed lids. It tingled slightly but it didn't hurt and Dean took a deep breath to brace himself before slowly opening his eyes.

And then he stared.

"Green!"

"Blue!"

They both blurted out at the same time, their awe mirrored in each other's faces.

"You're so beautiful..." Cas was the first to speak, already used in part to the wondrous sight in front of him.

"Aren't you talking about yourself?" Dean couldn't help but reply in return as he tried to ignore the dopey grin that was spreading on his face while he drowned himself in the other's appearance. Dark locks of tussled hair framed the most mesmerizing eyes he'd ever seen in his life: so blue that for an embarrassing instant he wondered how the sky wasn't envious of them, and their gorgeousness only slightly interrupted by the thin, vertical pupils marking their center. A thin layer of dark scales was visible near the root of his hair, but, aside from that, Castiel's face, throat and upper chest were covered in pale pink.

There were two little dips just above Cas' top lip – small, round pits that he wasn't sure what to make of – but his attention was diverted when a flash of bright pink darted out of the naga's mouth, flicked several times in the air and then promptly retreated back where it came from. It all happened so quickly that it took Dean several moments to fully process what he had just witnessed at a few inches from his face; he'd already found out firsthand that the other's tongue was weirdly long, but seeing it with his own eyes was another matter altogether: like he'd already suspected during their kisses, it was flatter than a human's, definitely longer by at least three inches, and about the same width. It also ended in a split point that he was sure to be the sole cause of Castiel's permanently hissy pronunciation.

Dean couldn't help a small grin as his mind provided him with memories of just how hot the other's gravelly voice was and then he let his eyes resume their roaming downwards. He unconsciously licked his lips when his gaze fell for an instant on the bulge just below Castiel's belly, conscious of the glorious double prize that was hidden in there – and fuck, he wanted to take a closer look at Cas' dicks now that he could! – and then he focused all his attention on the other's tail.

The scales of its upper side looked thicker and bigger than the ones on his face, with a diamond-like pattern that faded from black to blue and was outlined by vibrant green. The two lines of ridges that he'd only been previously able to touch on the other's back, were now easy to spot, going down to the lowest part of his hips and then joining together in a single, less intrusive row of little bumps.

The grin on Dean's face only grew wider when he traced them with the tips of his fingers, eliciting a shiver from the naga. The other squirmed, shifting closer, and Dean took notice of the still-pink-but-sorta-yellowish bands that ran down the underside of his tail.

"You look awesome." he declared when he was done with his scrutiny, soon finding out that a happy Cas was, apparently, a horny Cas.

Once they were both satisfied with what followed – and they were finally able once again to occupy the same space without trying to touch each other at every occasion at their disposal – they made a list of what Dean was going to need to go back to civilization.

Needless to say, Dean was very pleased to find out that the naga had managed to save his bag from the fire.

They decided that Cas would accompany him as close to the nearest village as he felt comfortable with – the idea of having contact with other humans still left him wary – and they would meet again in the same place a week afterward.

It took almost a whole hour to part when the time arrived, both resenting the distance that was going to keep them apart.

They kissed and hugged, murmuring reassurances to one another, and, once they separated, they smiled knowing that it was going to be fine: Dean had promised to come back after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a blast!  
> This fic took a lot of time to plan and write, but I'm so satisfied with it that it was completely worth the effort. For those of you interested, I'm probably going to write more about this universe since there are a lot of scenes that I noted down but didn't make it to the final cut.
> 
> In case anyone is interested, here is my fanfictions/fanarts tumblr: <http://dragon-scribbling-scribbles.tumblr.com/>  
> and my personal tumblr: <http://dragoneyes.tumblr.com/>  
> I'm planning to write more about this universe, so those are your best bets to get more updates about my progresses.
> 
> Now back to the fic, some notes and random tidbits of info since I spent whole days researching stuff for little details (most of which didn't even made it to the actual fic *loud groan*) and like hell I'm gonna see all that work go to waste.
> 
> I'm gonna write them in a separate chapter since they're kind of long and bluh bluh bluh too many characters and they don't fit here.


	2. Ending Notes

I'll start by saying that these aren't _all_ the notes I've for this universe.  
The actually notes span something like 5 pages of random small details like "What does Cas prey on?", "What kind of fruit grows in the Indian rainforest?" and things like that. I only listed here those that are relevant to this specific story, but the others are eventually gonna come up in one of the follow-up fics I'm already planning to write.

But anyway!

 _\- The setting -_  
When I was writing the first part of the fic I had a bit of an internal debate on the pros and cons of setting the story in the "real world". The main issue I was having was that I knew myself enough to realize that, if I started to use actual existing places, I would have ended up making sure that every single irrelevant detail was coherent with the location, which could potentially stress me more than was really needed for a ~20k words fic supposed to be written for fun.

So I decided that, to have a bit of wiggle room, the story would be set in a world that was "close enough to ours, but not quite the same". In this setting, the Eastern Rainforest is the equivalent of the Indian rainforest in both the fact that it's "somewhere east" in respect to where Dean, Sam and Jess are from, and the general flora and fauna is basically the same.

The fruit that Cas offers Dean when he first wakes up, is based off a bael fruit (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegle_marmelos>), while the salve that he used to relieve the effects of the venom in Dean's eyes is made of a plant named andrographis paniculata (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrographis_paniculata>). It isn't a particular potent remedy, but the venom from spitting cobras isn't very dangerous either if quickly taken care of, so I decided it was good enough. Incidentally, if you're wondering where Cas found out about its properties, it's probably Jimmy's fault. :P

The reason why Cas smells like cinnamon is that cinnamon oil is effective to keep mosquitoes away (because apparently mosquitoes are assholes and manage to bite even reptiles in spite of their scales), so Cas uses it to both keep them at bay and to slick his scales after he cleans them.  
Lastly, the salve used to cure Dean's fire-proximity-induced blisters is made of aloe because, you know...FUCK YEAH ALOE! *___*

 

 _\- Cas' anatomy -_  
The pattern of Cas' scales is based off the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (<http://wallpapers.pupazzo.org/animals/Coiled%20and%20Ready%20to%20Strike_%20Eastern%20Diamondback%20Rattlesnake.jpg>) where black is black, brown is blue, and the white outlines of the diamonds are bright green.

He's mostly a crepuscular/nocturnal hunter (which is the reason why he has vertical pupils) and he has the same kind of heat sensing organs that pit vipers have (see: the two deep pits just below his nose, as opposed to two sets of tree shallow pits that boids have).

The length of his tail is about 42 feet, which is more or less the length of a Titanoboa (the current world record holder for longest snake ever existed), although it's far less thick (around 1 foot 7 inches at its thickest against the Titanoboa's 3 feet 3 inches).  
I will not be commenting on Cas' weight since he's obviously 'not huge' (*whisper whisper* around 900 pounds).  
Differently from what happens in snakes, all his internal organs are more or less in the same position of human ones and, therefore, the mentioned 42 feet of length are effectively 42 feet of tail, where in snakes most of their lengths is composed by their bodies (yes, a snake's body and its tail are distinct). His tail is primarily used for hunting purposes.

Now for the fun part: yes, snakes have two penises.  
Well, no, ok, they technically have two hemipenises which are not exactly the same thing, but, since Cas is a naga anyway, I decided to go down that road because why the heck stop at one dick when I legitimately had an excuse to have two?  
Considering that some snakes have barbed hemipenises, I say that having to deal with double the usual amount of dicks is the best compromise that Dean could have asked for. *wink wink nudge nudge*  
Hemipenises don't usually work at the same time (they tend to alternate between one coupling and the next one) which is a thing shared by nagas in this 'verse, thus the reason why Cas was surprised that he popped a double boner: it literally had never happened to him before and he had never heard of it happening to anyone else either.  
Dean's just that sexy apparently! 8D


End file.
